


The Shadow of His Wings

by Havoka



Series: here be dragons [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2019-07-06 03:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15877452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoka/pseuds/Havoka
Summary: It's been thirteen years since Hana surrendered Deathwing's soul to two creatures of pure chaos, and the world has paid a hefty price. But with Amélie's repressed loneliness and desire for familial love driven forward by Deathwing's unstable emotional state, she decides to reawaken the former Destroyer and her family, the only creatures who ever showed her kindness. Maybe it isn't too late for them to save the world from their own bad decisions.





	1. No Hope to Find, In This Wasteland of Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I've been toiling away on this fic for a long while now, writing and re-writing to get it just so. I appreciate the patience of whoever is still here, and hasn't jumped ship on MekaMechanic yet...
> 
> For the details of Moira and Amélie's backstory, I recommend reading [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14933180), although it isn't mandatory since I briefly explain most of it within this fic.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the story!

Deathwing was a loathsome creature in life. A once-noble leader entrusted with his own flight of dragons and responsible for keeping the chaotic forces of the earth in balance, he had succumbed to greed, anger, and, ultimately, madness. He was willing to destroy the world in pursuit of power.

Amélie just wanted to feel.

“You waste so much time down here.” Moira crouched atop one of the castle’s crumbling pillars, gargoyle-like, watching Amélie watch their captive, slumbering subjects. “Why?”

Amélie’s gaze remained on the slumbering dragon before her. After over a decade of harboring a dragon soul Amélie had grown quite a bit, but she was still dwarfed by the gigantic purple dragoness Sombra. Despite her size and fearsome appearance, Sombra had offered to take Amélie in and care for her without a second thought. Of course she never would have known how to tend to a biological abomination like Amélie, but Amélie often found herself wondering how her life may have turned out had she spent the last ten years with a dragon instead of a fellow laboratory monstrosity.

“This world is very cruel,” Amélie murmured. “It does not reward the kind or punish the evil.”

“Is that cruel?” Moira landed beside her, light as smoke. “Sounds more apathetic than malevolent.”

Sombra shifted her chin on her paw. A puff of her warm breath tickled Amélie’s face and forearms, though her scaly blue skin hardly felt much anymore. Even through her scaly exterior, however, she could feel the nauseatingly cold hand that settled on her shoulder. Its long, sharp fingers curled around her collarbone. “You’re feeling something, aren’t you.”

Amélie tensed her shoulders, trying half-heartedly to shrug out of Moira’s grasp.

“Amélie,” Moira warned.

“I don’t like being numb.” Amélie made a weak fist. Where her fingers touched her palm her palm squished in, not quite liquid but certainly weaker than human flesh. She hated that being a dragon, or maybe being a lab abomination, or a winning combination of both, apparently meant aging far, far slower than any other creature she’d met. Perhaps it was the weaknesses in her genetic makeup, since Moira had not aged either. All this time later she was still a teenager, and Moira still treated her like one.

“I know. But you know what happens when you get too worked up about things. And I’d rather not be left alone to mop you up.”

“Maybe I could learn to control it better,” Amélie said. “With practice...” She turned to face the other woman. “What do you think?”

“I think there are too many variables unaccounted for. Why introduce something so potentially detrimental when you’re stable the way you are?”

Amélie raised an eyebrow. “ _You?_ Upholding the status quo?”

Moira lifted a finger as if to dispute the claim, but instead moved to stroking her chin and staring pensively outward. “My God. That _is_ what I’m doing, isn’t it?” She pulled her hand away from her face. “To think of all the observational data I’ve been missing out on by keeping you stable. See, this is the downside to having to emotional inference–”

Amélie tilted her head.

“...Not that I...let emotions get in the way of my decision-making...” Moira backpedaled. “I would never be so unprofessional. I’m not a human, after all.”

Amélie wandered around Sombra’s giant body. In the far corner of the room slumbered an orange and grey dragon, much smaller than Sombra, with three humans and five hybrid children nestled up against her. Amélie had moved Hana and Brigitte over to them at some point – it seemed wrong to keep them separated. The two of them were wrapped in each other’s arms, sleeping peacefully against the dragon’s warm hide. The dragon’s lover was curled up between its paws, a tiny smile on her face, breathing in sync with her mate.

“Is that a family?” Amélie asked.

“The biologically related ones, yes.”

“What about the ones who aren’t related?”

Moira looked them over. In their current placement, all cuddled up like they were, it was impossible to differentiate the biological relationships from the socially constructed. “It’s my understanding that families consist of blood relatives, save for mates. But perhaps it is more complicated than that.”

“Perhaps.”

She could feel Moira’s eyes on her, but she did not turn around. Instead Amélie sat down beside Sombra and leaned against her scales.

“What are you doing?” A cloud of purple smoke took form beside her. Moira tapped her fingernails on the crook of her elbow as she leered down at her.

“I want a family,” Amélie said.

“Oh, good Lord.” Moira knelt down in front of her. “You know circumstances are different for us. We were not born. We were created. We have no family, nor any need for one.”

Amélie turned away. Suddenly she felt those icy fingers under her chin, as Moira took her face in one skeletal hand and forced Amélie to look her in the eyes. That revealed Amélie’s moist eyes and dripping skin. “Amélie.” Moira’s voice was stern, but not overtly malicious. “Pull yourself together, girl. It isn’t worth falling apart over.”

Amélie buried her face in her hands. Her shoulders quivered as she felt her bio-engineered body begin to collapse under the weight of her pent-up emotion. She was not built to withstand emotional trauma. She was not built to withstand anything – she was a laboratory accident. A spill, a chemical reaction miracle of life in the middle of the lab’s other experiment wreaking havoc on the place.

Those scientists they’d killed were not her family. They had created her, sort of, but there was only one creature that had stuck by her all these years. Whether that was out of attachment or simply a selfish aversion to being alone Amélie could not tell, but it was all she had ever known regardless.

“Amélie...” Moira’s usually-fierce eyes searched her face. “I don’t understand the way you’re feeling. It’s irrational.”

“I know it is.”

Moira’s thumb smoothed over the dripping skin of Amélie’s cheek. “What course of action will stop the production of these emotions?”

Amélie sniffled. “I really don’t know.”

“Well they say Deathwing’s heart was full of greed. Lust for power, for consorts, for the whole world to be under his claw.” Moira tapped her sharp chin. “Perhaps it’s affecting you as well.”

“I thought I could handle him,” Amélie mumbled. “Now I understand why Hana was desperate to be rid of him.”

“You want to be rid of him as well?”

“He makes my stomach feel upset all the time. I have never felt such restlessness.”

Moira exhaled. “I don’t know how to deal with a dragon. I know how to deal with a laboratory specimen.”

Amélie turned and cast a pointed look at Sombra.

“You really want to stay with her, don’t you?” Moira’s tone was carefully guarded. It was impossible to glean any sort of emotion from it. “You know she’ll probably resent you for what we did to her?”

“I know.”

They could hear the wind outside howling, whistling through the leaky old windows of the castle. As it turned out, attempting to mass-experiment on humans had adverse effects on the health of local populations. With no one left to maintain it the city around them crumbled and fell into eventual ruin. That probably wouldn’t matter to a clan of dragons, though.

“So...what, then? You want me to wake them up? Or put you into their dream?”

“Can you wake them up?”

Moira folded her arms and stared pensively up at Sombra’s sleeping form.

“She won’t know how to deal with your genetic instability.”

“I know.”

“And I won’t be staying with you should you decide to settle in with these creatures.”

Amélie turned to her. ”Where will you go?”

Moira glanced down at her hands. Her fingers flexed, then clenched into her palms. “I suppose I’ll return to our world. Or perhaps I’ll follow Angela back to hers...”

“Very well.”

Moira kept her gaze averted as she lifted her chin. “So that’s it, then? We go our separate ways?”

“Do you not want that?”

“I have no strong feelings.” Her tightly-crossed arms and taut lips said otherwise, but she did not protest further.

Amélie frowned. “Moira, you can stay if you want to.”

“No.” She held up a long, spindly hand to silence her. “Our goals are incompatible. I want to explore every corner of the universe. Settling down in one place won’t answer–”

“Okay. I understand.”

The two of them were quiet for a long minute. Then Moira settled her claws on Sombra’s scales. Her healing energy radiated out over the dragoness, who began to stir.

“Thank you,” Amélie said. Moira did not respond.

Eventually Sombra’s whole body was bathed in light, so bright Amélie shielded her eyes. While the dragoness was being awakened from her lengthy sedation, Moira began to walk away.

“Be good, Amélie.”

“Not possible.”

With a smirk she disappeared into the shadows. Moments later Sombra opened her giant mouth, sticky with saliva, and yawned a big, sparking yawn.

Amélie turned to her. “Sombra?”

“Nng...” Sombra smacked her lips. “Five more years...”

Amélie did not spend much time in her dragon form. The change still felt strange to her. Regardless, before Sombra fully awoke Amélie settled on her hands and knees and focused on the changing – and solidifying – of her semi-liquid skin. Transforming into her sizable dragon form, she stretched her snout out and nuzzled Sombra. That roused the dragoness. “Hey, who’s touching...me...?”

Her eyes opened, then immediately dilated at the sight of another dragon so close to her. “Agh!”

She stumbled backward. Her human lover topped to the ground, which woke him up rather quickly. “The hell...?”

“Sombra, it’s Amélie.” Amélie’s paws scratched on the stone floor as she pursued Sombra. “I’m here to stay now.”

Sombra’s eyes bugged as she looked around. “Wh...where am I? What’s going on?”

“You’re in the castle Moira and I were staying in. Moira left, though.”

“What...where’s...” She seemed relieved at the sight of Jesse by her paw – she picked him up with her mouth and tucked him between her forepaws. “I’m so confused. I was just at Hana and Brigitte’s house?”

“Oh...yes.” Amélie cleared her throat. “You were asleep.”

“I was?” Sombra attempted to rise to her feet, but cried out sharply. “Ow, I’m so stiff! How long was I asleep?”

“Oh, only about...thirteen years...”

“Really? Feels longer than that.” She yawned again, stretching her paws until her joints loudly cracked. “So where’s everyone else?”

Amélie nodded to the far end of the room, where Hana’s family still slept.

“...Huh. How did we all end up asleep in this weird place?”

“The witch did it,” Amélie blurted. “I - I saved you from it. From her.” It wasn’t technically a lie. She was simply omitting the fact that Moira and the witch had struck up an unlikely friendship and, with Amélie’s assistance, combined their abilities to conquer this world.

Sombra eyed her. “You’re acting different.”

“I am?”

“Yeah.” She leaned in and gave the younger dragoness a sniff. “And you smell funny.”

It was true that Amélie had gained a rather unpleasant smell over the past few years. No matter what she did, it never went away. Moira had theorized it was to do with her chemical instability – science experiments rarely smelled good. “Yes, I know. Moira says it’s a chemical reaction–”

Sombra’s snout wrinkled. “Girl, that’s not a chemical reaction. When was the last time you were groomed?”

Amélie stared at her. “I - bathe every day.”

“Not a bath. You’re a teenage dragon. You need all those old scales sloughed off. Otherwise you just stink and have dead scale skin hanging all over you.” Sombra clicked her tongue. “Jeez, this is why you needed a dragon in your life.”

Amélie’s chin lowered. Sombra must have noticed that, for her voice softened slightly. “But hey, I mean, you’re a teenage dragon. It’d be weird if you _didn’t_ have a little stink on ya.”

Amélie sat down on her haunches beside the much-larger dragoness. “I remember you said I would need grooming, but I didn’t know what to do. It felt strange.”

“Well what were you doing? How were you doing it?”

“I just kind of...” Amélie lifted her forepaw and licked it, then wiped the dampened paw on her other arm.

“No, no, no.” Sombra pulled her in under her giant paw. “I really have to clean your gross pubescent shed skin?”

Suddenly Amélie was slapped with a massive, rough wall of tongue skin. It practically knocked her right over. She hunkered down and gritted her teeth as Sombra sloughed her excess scales off. To her surprise, where it was groomed her skin actually solidified and stayed solid. _I am not falling apart anymore?_

“Eugh,” Sombra spat out a bunch of gooey scales. “You taste terrible.”

“Sorry. I was an accidental chemical reaction in a lab.”

“No excuse.” She turned Amélie’s face toward hers and licked under her chin and around her snout. “So why are you acting so different, anyway?”

“When I was first born I was very emotional. It made my body very weak. Moira experimented on me and managed to suppress my emotional response...but it did not last forever. Now I am weak again.”

“What do you mean it makes your body weak?”

“We are not very solid entities. Were it not for my scales I would probably be a puddle of goo by now.”

“Oh. Weird.”

“Mhm.”

Sombra continued to groom her. As she did so Amélie’s eyes settled on Hana and her family. “Should I wake them up?” she asked.

“I mean, yeah? They’ve missed out on years of their lives together. That’s kinda shitty.”

“They were experiencing the same dream together. So they weren’t really missing it.”

“Wait, were we all in the same dream?”

Amélie nodded.

“That’s so weird...” Sombra sat up on her haunches. “Hey! Wake up you guys!”

“Should you not be more delicate about it?” Regardless Amélie watched with interest as the other creatures stirred. Without Moira’s healing abilities she wondered if the awakening process would be different.

Sombra leaned over and fanned her wings in Hana and Brigitte’s faces. “Hellooo?”

* * *

 

“Even after all these years, you still make the best pie I’ve ever had.”

Hana’s compliment brought a smile to Brigitte’s face, one of countless they’d shared over the years of their marriage. Her eyes had formed laugh lines in the corners, only faint, but noticeable enough. Hana saw them as an accomplishment – no one had ever made her feel funny before Brigitte. The two of them would spend hours heaving with laughter over the silliest of things, from stupid jokes, to quirky little day-to-day occurrences, to long-running inside jokes about things that wouldn’t be funny in any other circumstance but experiencing them with the love of your life.

“And you’re still the best pie-testing guinea pig I’ve ever had.” Brigitte took a bite of the dessert, chewed briefly, and then frowned. “You really think this is good?”

Hana replied by wolfing down the rest of her slice and grinning.

Brigitte’s smile lingered but a moment before she sighed and rested her elbows on the table. Hana was immediately attentive. “What’s wrong?”

“I mean, nothing, really.” She rested her chin on her palm, her eyes flicking up to Hana only momentarily. “That’s kind of the thing, I guess?”

“What do you mean?”

“Doesn’t everything always feel perfect? Like, _too_ perfect?” Her brows furrowed as she stared down at the table’s surface. “We had such chaotic lives before this. Now it feels like a fairytale ending.”

“Is...” Hana squinted. “Is that not what we want? Do you want chaos?”

“No. No. I just...ugh, I don’t know.” She massaged her temples. “Forget I said anything.”

“Well you know I can’t do that.” Hana reached over and pulled Brigitte’s hand out from under her chin. “Tell me what you mean, Brig.”

There was clear hesitation in Brigitte’s eyes, but she was powerless under Hana’s warm, loving gaze. “...And you know I can’t keep anything from you,” she said with a weary smile. “I just meant that, well, human life usually isn’t what we went through before, but it’s not usually like this. Especially for lesbian couples, and especially especially for lesbian couples where one of us spent the first nineteen years of her life totally removed from human civilization.”

“What does any of that matter?”

Brigitte seemed to be considering her words before her saying them. “Humans tend to reject humans that are different from them. Even if it’s something as superficial as skin tone, or social skills, or who they’re married to.”

“Why? Is it like a turf thing?”

“No, it’s just a...I don’t know, honestly. People have a lot of crappy reasons for how they feel about other people. But anyway, my point is that it’s sadly kind of weird that we haven’t ever had anyone give us trouble. On top of that, when was the last time either of us got sick? I can’t even remember. And the weather’s always pretty nice, the townsfolk don’t complain that we invite a giant dragon over for our get-togethers...”

Hana was still staring at her. “What are you implying?”

“Life isn’t _like_ this,” she replied. “It feels like...it feels like a dream.”

Hana’s eyes widened as Brigitte stared down at the backs of her hands on the table. “A dream?” She studied Brigitte in disbelief. “You - you think?”

“I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel like how it used to.”

“I don’t have a frame of reference for what human life is supposed to be like. If you say this is weird, then what’s it supposed to be? Full of hate?” The only humans she knew had nothing but love in their hearts. They weren’t evil or hateful. Why was Brigitte acting like that was strange?

After a lengthy silence, Brigitte ultimately shook her head. “No,” she murmured. “Maybe we really did just luck out.”

“There’s no way this is a dream, Brig. We’ve been married twelve years.”

“I know. You’re probably right.”

At that Hana smiled. “And you know how dreams are, anyway. Whenever you start to realize it’s a dream you wake up!”

Brigitte reached over and cupped Hana’s face in one hand. They leaned across the table and shared a gentle kiss.

“I know. I don’t know why I started to think like that.”

“Because you’re ridiculous.”

“Obviously, considering I married _you._ ”

And then the two of them were laughing again. That was how it always went; nothing they discussed every really culminated into anything serious. They never fought, and nothing ever really changed. There was never any chaos, only peace and calm.

That was what human life was supposed to be like. Wasn’t it?

* * *

 

They made an effort to maintain an active sex life, but it was difficult when most nights ended in the two of them curled up together talking the night away. Regardless how many years passed there were still things they did not know about each other. Hana wanted to know everything.

This particular evening she was pressed into Brigitte’s bare chest, smiling as Brigitte recounted a silly story about one of her old cats. Their fingers were linked together down by their thighs, the sturdy metal of their hand-forged rings clinking together whenever they moved.

“You think you’ll ever want some?” Brigitte interrupted her own story to ask.

“Hm?” Hana withdrew her face from Brigitte’s chest. “Some what?”

“You weren’t listening, were you.”

“No, I was. You were talking about your cat.”

“That was ten minutes ago.”

“Well I’m sorry your boobs are so comfortable. I was falling asleep.”

Brigitte scooped them up and smushed them into Hana’s face. “Aghh! I’m being smothered to death by boob!”

“The only noble lesbian death.”

Once she managed to free herself and come up for air Hana wrapped her legs around Brigitte’s waist, steadied herself on top of her and traced a line down her chest with one finger. “I’m sorry. So what were you saying?”

“I was asking if you think you’ll ever want kids someday.”

That gave Hana pause. She tilted her head and gazed down at Brigitte, who was chewing her lip and looking away. “I thought _you_ didn’t want any.”

Brigitte shrugged her broad shoulders. “I don’t know. I go back and forth on it.”

Hana leaned down and kissed her lightly. “You think we’d make good parents?”

Brigitte chuckled. “Probably not.”

Hana laid back down beside Brigitte, letting her wife’s strong arms encapsulate her once again. Bathed in the familiar warmth Hana yawned. “Just go to sleep then, sleepy.” Brigitte drew her in under the blankets and rested her chin on the top of Hana’s head. Hana heard her draw in a lazy breath as she yawned as well.

“Psh, I’m not the only sleepy one apparently.”

Brigitte closed her eyes and nestled into her pillow. “I caught it from you.”

“Shut up and go to bed already.”

She squirmed as Brigitte poked her in the stomach. “Divorce me,” Brigitte said.

“With pleasure.”

They snuggled up together and finally, after hours of being in bed, fell asleep.

* * *

 

_Hello?_

_Hellooo?_

Hana was roused from her slumber by a familiar voice. Her ears perked as the creature attempted to pull her from her deep, deep sleep.

_They may not awaken without Moira’s help._

“Hm? Who’s talking?” Hana slowly pulled her eyelids apart. Even with her eyes open, however, the world was pitch-dark. “Brig? Did you leave the TV on?”

“It’s me, dum-dum.” A giant claw poked her on the top of the head. As her eyes adjusted to the low light Hana realized it was Sombra in front of her. Beside her was a smaller, purple-blue dragoness she had never seen before, and they were in a dark, damp place Hana had no recollection of.

“Sombra...where are we?”

“Ask this one.” Sombra nudged the unfamiliar dragoness forward. The dragon’s golden eyes seemed oddly familiar, though Hana couldn’t place where she’d seen them before.

“Ng...wha...” Brigitte’s voice beside her drew Hana’s attention. Brigitte pulled her glassy eyes open and looked around, clearly in a daze. “...What’s going on?”

The smaller dragoness swished her tail. “It was all Moira’s fault,” she said. “Moira and the witch.”

“Wait...” Hana studied her. “That voice...”

“It’s Amélie. I know it has been a long time.”

“Amélie?” Brigitte sat up, rubbing her head. “That girl from all those years ago?”

Amélie nodded. “You have been asleep all this time. Moira and the witch did it. But they are gone now. I wanted to stay with you.”

Brigitte clambered to her feet. It was clear she was weak after so much time unconscious, and her body was unused to walking. “So, wait a minute. We’ve been asleep, and imprisoned here for God knows how long? And that witch who almost destroyed the world is still around?”

She offered a hand to Hana to help her up. As their fingers entwined Hana realized they no longer wore the rings Brigitte had forged for them.

“Wait - was it all a dream...?” Hana whispered. “Twelve years of marriage...?”

“It was all a dream?” Brigitte stared at her in horror. “We’ve been asleep like thirteen years?!”

“I don’t know!” Hana bit her lip as she looked down at her empty ring finger. “If it was a dream, did we both dream the same thing?”

“Did we live in a little yellow cottage with a big backyard so we could invite all our friends over?”

“Yeah! And you made rings for us, and they were engraved with-”

“-each other’s names on the inside of the band.”

“Yeah! So it was the same?”

“If we were living the same dream then doesn’t that make it not that much different from being awake?” Brigitte rubbed her temples. “I’m so confused.”

“Yes, you were all in a shared consciousness,” Amélie said. “The witch’s doing, to prevent you from realizing you were asleep. If you were alone you would eventually have realized the loved ones you were interacting with were merely projections of your own mind.”

Hana turned to behold the rest of her family, still lost in a comatose dream. Satya, so powerful and strong, was slumbering silently, at the mercy of the entire world around her. Likewise, Fareeha and the quintuplets were nestled against her, looking completely serene in the middle of the creepy castle.

“Fareeha!” Hana started shaking the other human woman. At first Fareeha only groaned and turned over, but as Hana persisted she eventually began to wake up.

“Huh? Why are you shaking me?”

“Fareeha, you’ve been dreaming.” Hana helped her sit up. “We all have. For, like, years.”

“What?” As she sat up and looked around Hana realized she had visibly aged. Her shining, jet-black hair now had a few white strands mixed in, and like Brigitte she had crow’s feet around her eyes from laughing.

“That witch did this to us.” Brigitte held her hand out to help Fareeha up. “I guess...”

Fareeha was clearly still fuzzy. “Witch...wasn’t that like ten years ago?”

Amélie transformed before them, changing back to the familiar form they knew her in. She seemingly hadn’t aged at all, which was strange considering dragons usually reached maturity fairly quickly. _Must be because she’s a...whatever she is._

Fareeha turned over and wrapped her arms around Satya’s neck. “Satya. Wake up. You’re asleep.”

Satya’s eyes squeezed tighter shut, and her claws dug into the rough ground beneath her.

Fareeha poked her scales gingerly. Satya rumbled – then she lifted a paw and dragged Fareeha in under it. “Agh-” Fareeha winced as Satya began licking her. “No, I don’t need a bath, I need you to – nngh – oh...” Fareeha’s cheeks flushed as Satya licked her all over. “H-hey, there’s kids here, Saty.”

Fareeha started trying to wake the kids. “Jyoti, hey, get up. We gotta wake your mom up.”

Jyoti grunted and turned over. Fareeha started pulling her back over again.

“Satya?” Hana tapped her on the snout. “You awake?”

Satya’s eyes remained closed, but her ears swiveled just slightly in Hana’s direction.

“Satya...” Hana cupped her hands and leaned into Satya’s ear. “Satya!”

“Hm? Huh?” Satya sat up, knocking the kids all over the place. After casting a confused glance around, she laid back down and said, “Where are we?”

“Ow, Mom, you’re laying on me.” Hemakshi squirmed under Satya’s stomach.

“Oh dear.” Satya stood up again. “My apologies.”

“Why are we sleeping on the floor?” Aziza sat up and rubbed her head. “Is this Hana’s fault again?”

“No!” Hana folded her arms. “...Okay, technically yes.”

Satya gathered the dragonlings up with one paw, spurring a chorus of groans and whines from the tweens. “Hana.” She narrowed her eyes at her oldest child. “What now?”

“Um, don’t be too mad...”

Satya stared her down. Hana felt a bead of sweat trickle down her neck. “I mean, it’s not... _that_ bad...” She tugged at the collar of her shirt. “We all got a nice, restful sleep out of it!” Satya leaned in and growled at her. “...Jeez, you’re a dragon when you first wake up.” Hana pushed her away. “It was more Deathwing’s fault, anyway. He’s the reason the world’s all wrecked and the last thirteen years of our lives were all a dream.”

“What?”

“I had no idea it was all a dream, I was in it too!”

“Wait. So the witch was never truly defeated?”

“I...don’t know. I’m not really sure when the dream started, to be honest.” She looked to Amélie. “Was I ever a dragon at all? Or was that a dream, too?”

“Everything was real up until I took on Deathwing’s dragon soul. The witch fled, but Moira and I found her. She and Moira spoke, and I guess they found some commonalities. After that they used my power to unleash chaos upon your world.”

“Is the world still all wrecked like it was before?”

“Not...quite like it was before.”

They all stared her down then. “What’s it like now?” Brigitte asked pointedly.

The castle was guarded by massive front doors, easily large enough for a dragon to come and go through. It seemed to take all of Amélie’s strength to push one of them open. The door groaned on its track as it reluctantly opened outward. Immediately loose dirt rushed in with a strong wind, forcing Hana to shield her eyes.

The moment it cleared, and she was able to see, Hana stopped in her tracks.

The world outside was nothing but a dust-blown wasteland. No sun, no trees, no signs of civilization or even any life. Just ruin.

A tiny shudder ran down Hana’s spine. With so much of the world leveled to nothing the wind howled unencumbered across the barren ground, kicking the sand up into twisters of blinding dust that blocked out the already dust-clouded, gray-brown sky. “What happened here?” she shouted over the wind. It looked even worse than when the witch of the wilds had been in possession of Deathwing’s dragon soul. She had hidden the sun away, yes, but at least the world had still been capable of sustaining life then. This felt like an alien planet.

“Moira wanted to experiment on every living creature we found. Eventually we could not find any more.”

The heavy clunk of boots behind her announced Brigitte’s presence before she stepped up beside Hana. “The last time I saw Papa I was going against him,” she murmured. “I was running away with you.” Her shoulders tensed tight to her body. “And Mama...my brothers and sisters...my...my cats...”

As a dragon Hana had occasionally fallen into months-long, and as a growing teenage dragon even years-long, slumbers. Years were pretty much irrelevant when both you and your mother-figure had thousands of them ahead of you. Sleeping through thirteen years was surprising, but not world-shattering, for Hana.

Brigitte’s viewpoint was, understandably, very different.

“I’m sorry, Brig,” Hana whispered. “Maybe - maybe they’re still alive...?”

“Out in _this?”_ Brigitte threw her arm out at the apocalyptic wasteland spanning infinitely in all directions. “I kind of doubt it, Hana.”

Hana flinched at the anger in her voice. “I was just trying to make you feel better.”

“I know, but–” Brigitte closed her eyes and took a moment to exhale. “Hana. Everything is _so_ screwed up. There’s no magically undoing this. We lost a _decade_ of our lives, and the world is totally wrecked! And it’s all because of...”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment. Finally Brigitte turned away. “I need to walk away for a minute,” she said.

Hana watched her disappear back into the castle’s dim hallway. The urge to follow her was tempered only by Hana’s gut instinct that doing so would only make things worse.

Brigitte had every right to be upset with her.

Amélie faced away from them, staring out into the wastes. “I was numb,” she mumbled. “And Moira and I...she seems older than me, but we are the same age. Neither of us have had any positive experiences with humankind. They treated us as nothing but scientific tools of learning, so we did the same to them. It was nothing personal.”

“Is Brigitte’s family dead?” Hana whispered.

Amélie half-turned. “I thought you were her family.”

“I mean her parents.”

Amélie stared blankly at her.

“...The humans that gave birth to her?”

“Ohh. Moira usually called them progenitors.”

“Oh. Well...that’s weird.”

Amélie crossed her arms and resumed gazing out into the distance. “They might be,” she said. “Many people died from our testing. I guess they were not strong enough.”

“But you just kept testing on them?”

“When my emotions started to come back, the first one that returned was anger.” Amélie stared down at her boots, old and scuffed and seeming too small for her feet, though maybe with her odd construction her body could expand or contract to fit any space. “I was so...mad.”

“What were you mad at?”

“I don’t know. Humans, I guess.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t like them. They live such peaceful, stupid little lives.” She made a fist and clutched it with her other hand. “With their _houses_ and their _families_...”

Although Amélie was turned, Hana’s eyes lingered on the girl for a long time. Not once in the last thirteen years of her life had Hana truly regretted her choice to become human, but looking at what she had created she was regretting it now. _Rather than learning to conquer my problems I just heaped them onto someone else and tried living in ignorance instead._ A child. She piled that responsibility onto a child. Of course a thirteen-year-old had no idea what to do with Deathwing’s immense power, resentment, and thirst for destruction. Hana had had Satya there to keep her in line, to squash the teenage dragon’s ambitions – sometimes physically, crushing her under her big scaly backside – whenever she started on her threats to devour the world. Although the woman who reared her could be harsh at times, the delicate balance of draconic aggression and human kindness in her heart was exactly what a young dragon-human hybrid had needed.

What did Amélie have? A frightening woman who was more laboratory experiment than living creature? No wonder the world looked like it did now.

Amélie jumped when Hana rested her hand on the girl’s bony shoulder. “Y’know,” Hana said, “I was Deathwing’s vessel for a long time. I know what it was like. And you know Satya would probably be willing to separate your souls, if you’d prefer that?”

“No,” Amélie hastily responded.

Hana raised an eyebrow. “What? Why not?”

Suddenly Amélie transformed back into her dragon form, nearly crushing Hana in the process. Before Hana could even complain about it the girl scurried off into the castle depths.

“What the heck...?” Uncertain what else to do, Hana followed her back inside.

* * *

 

She found Amélie tucked in beside Sombra as Sombra lay sprawled on the castle floor. “Are you really sleeping again?” Satya was tending to the dragonlings in the far corner of the room, much to their dismay. She cast a disdainful look up at the other dragoness, who yawned irreverently.

“All that sleeping made me tired! Hungry too, actually. We should probably go for a hunt soon.”

“And hunt _what_? Have you seen the state of the world at present?”

Brigitte was nowhere to be found. She obviously hadn’t gone far, but the fact that she wasn’t with the others was concerning Hana. _She must be really mad at me._

Hana glanced down at her bare ring finger. _I brought this world to ruin. Maybe I’m just as bad as he was..._

Brigitte was completely alone in this world now – she had no parents, no siblings, not even Reinhardt. Maybe they were still out there somewhere, but with the state of the world it did seem unlikely.

Satya was busy with her real children, so Hana simply slid down against one of the castle walls and rested her chin on her forearms. She tried to keep her emotions contained, but tears leaked out between her closed eyelids anyway. _No matter what I do, I just screw everything up. I should just throw myself back into the lava pit Satya cooked me in._

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of boots approaching her on the stone floor. Thinking it was Brigitte, she opened her eyes – she was instead surprised by Jesse crouching in front of her.

“You all right?” he said.

Hana sniffled, trying to swallow her tears before he noticed them. “Oh...yeah. Just a lot to take in, I guess.”

To her further surprise, he sat down beside her. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a quick flick of his lighter. Moments after taking his first drag he made a face and said, “Damn thing’s stale as all hell.” Rather than finish it he simply dropped it to the floor and snuffed it out with his shoe.

The smell of smoke so close to her brought back memories good and bad. She felt a tingle on her tongue as her body recalled the sensation of breathing smoke and fire. Although in her mind she’d been human for over a decade now, in her physical, waking form it had only been, what, a few days?

Hana gazed down at the smoldering cigarette slowly dying on the floor. Then she looked up at Jesse. “Can I have one of those?”

He tipped his hat back to make eye contact. “You want a smoke?”

“I kind of miss it.”

“Huh. Didn’t take you for a smoker.” He fished another one out of his pocket, lit it, and then handed it to her. “It’s all dried out, but go nuts.”

Hana uncertainly pushed it in between her lips and inhaled. Smoke filled her lungs, and she coughed, but it was strangely comforting. She took the cigarette out and exhaled the smoke in a stream, much like the way she used to breathe fire. It was much less substantial than her black smog of old, but she found herself taking a few more drags of it and repeating the act anyway.

“Your wife’s pretty pissed at ya,” Jesse said offhandedly as he put his lighter away and tipped his hat back down over his eyes.

“Did she say anything?”

“Didn’t have to. It was all in the stompin’ and mutterin’ under her breath.”

“Did you notice which way she went?”

“I wouldn’t follow ‘er. Least not right now. If you do you’re gonna get all that blasted right at ya. Better to let her simmer down a bit first, I’d say.”

Hana held the cigarette between her fingers, staring at the soft orange glow at its end. “Sometimes I miss being a dragon. Figuring out humans can be so hard.”

Jesse rested his hands behind his head. “I get that. I had some flings with human women in the past. Never really worked out. Humans are...” He glanced up at Sombra, who was trying, and largely failing, to teach Amélie how to reach her own back for grooming. “...I just never fit in with ‘em.”

“Do you wish you were a dragon?”

Jesse chuckled, then sighed and shrugged. “That stupid of me?”

“It’s not stupid. I think a lot of us start out the wrong way and have to make it right ourselves.” The group surrounding her was proof of that. They’d changed genders, species, souls, pretty much anything you could think of they had tinkered with.

For a while he was quiet. Then he said, “Guess it don’t matter too much considerin’ the state of things right now.”

She didn’t want to think about that any more than she had to. “Maybe we’ll find a way to fix it.”

Jesse puffed out a breath, and didn’t say anything in response.

* * *

 

The castle was dark and massive, with all manner of winding hallways and gaping chambers ensuring unwelcome company would end up lost within its walls. It was just as well, since that was what Brigitte wanted at the moment anyway.

She sat hugging her knees, feeling like a child in a giant, empty house. From a high window she could see sand blowing in, creating little dunes on the windowsill. _That’s all that’s out there now. Just dirt._

Her family had to be dead. No way they could live through the end of the world. Well, maybe her father could...he was pretty tough. But she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

 _Hana..._ She found herself grinding her teeth. _No. It’s not her fault. She was a damn dragon for most of her life. You can’t expect her to have known better._

“But it’s awfully disappointing, isn’t it.”

Brigitte’s head shot up. Sitting in the windowsill was a bony, long-legged woman who, despite the many years that had passed since last seeing her, Brigitte immediately recognized.

“What are _you_ doing here?” She tried to stifle the venom in her voice. She failed.

Moira stretched and cracked her joints. They did not pop, but rather made a noise like pulling a peanut butter sandwich apart. “I’m in the same boat as you, human. I’ve been let down by the only creature I truly trusted.”

“I’m not let down by anyone.”

“No? Not even the wild animal masquerading as a human that you married?”

“What happens between me and her is none of your business. Go be a creep somewhere else.”

The other woman’s body began to melt, like wax. It dribbled down to the floor, where it then re-solidified in her usual shape beside Brigitte. “You know, we watched you in your sleep quite a bit. There were many instances in which Hana would try to take hold of you and you would reject her. Why is that?”

A chill ran down Brigitte’s spine at the thought of Moira and Amélie studying her in her sleep. “I was _sleeping,_ ” she spat. “I don’t have any control over what I was doing.”

“Hm. Interesting.” Moira examined her fingernails. Brigitte cringed as she pulled one right off, licked its underside, and then pushed it back into her gooey finger. “I’ll admit I’m not intimately familiar with human sleep behaviors.”

“Really? Even after studying us for thirteen years?”

“Oho, we did not study _you_ for thirteen years. We were off doing far more interesting things.”

“Yeah, like destroying the world.”

Moira fixed her with a look of confusion. “What are you talking about? The world is still here. It’s changed, yes, but it isn’t _destroyed_. Not by a long shot.”

Brigitte found herself wishing she had her mace with her.

“You seem frustrated.” Moira drifted around from behind her. “I’d love to perform a stress test–”

“Leave me alone!” Brigitte grabbed her by the collar of her coat and flung her into the nearest wall. Of course, having such a fluid form, Moira hit with no real force and reformed instantly. She threw her head back and laughed with far more pretentiousness than her pathetic existence warranted.

“You can’t hurt me, human. You can’t hurt me and you _certainly_ can’t kill me. But I must say, I find your response fascinating. Have I touched a nerve with these topics?”

“You’re getting on my nerves, for sure.”

Moira reached over and touched a jagged nail to Brigitte’s chest. “My body has grown weak over the years, but I’m not ready to leave the wealth of raw data in this world.”

“Back off.” Brigitte pushed her away. “Nobody wants you here. Just go away.”

Something ice cold slithered across her calves. She realized with horror that Moira’s dripping lower half had coiled, serpent-like, around her, binding her legs together.

“If I left a place every time someone didn’t want me there, I’d have nowhere in the universe to go.” She chuckled, then pushed her face in close to Brigitte’s. Her breath smelled like boiling acid. “Aren’t you happy your wife sought me out all those years ago?”

The chemical stench made Brigitte’s eyes water. She tried to lift her arm to shield her face, but Moira’s nightmarish long fingers curled around both her wrists to stop her. “I’d like to try out a new experiment.” Moira’s grin revealed long, uneven fangs dripping with purple venom. “But my old bones are frail...not like yours.”

In an attempt to break away Brigitte stumbled and fell backward. Before she could get off her back Moira pinned her down and planted her oozing palm right in the center of Brigitte’s chest.

“Get off me!” Brigitte kicked at her, but it was useless, as Moira’s body simply absorbed the impact. “What are you trying to do?!”

“I’m just seeing what I _can_ do.” Moira’s hand sank right into Brigitte’s chest, flowing in through every little pore. Brigitte gasped – it was cold, and yet it burned like acid. It was a sensation like the most severe indigestion you could possibly imagine, and it only got worse when Moira wrapped those horrible fingers right around Brigitte’s heart and squeezed with all she had.

“Stop-!” Brigitte choked and gasped for air while Moira merged Brigitte’s body with her own. “Hana! Anybody! Help me–!”

Moira’s body melted on top of her, flowing over her like a cocoon of thick chemicals. Everywhere they made contact Moira’s liquefied flesh soaked into Brigitte’s, and Brigitte found her own body stiff and unable to respond. She tried to scream, but even her vocal chords were paralyzed. The horrifying experience only lasted a few seconds in total, but by the time Moira’s body disappeared completely Brigitte was lying on the floor shaking and sweating, her eyes leaking tears as she simply stared up at the ceiling, unable to move.

Something horrible was inside her now. She felt sick all over, but there was nothing she could do. When finally she regained control of her body she started dry heaving, doubled over on the cold stone floor, but her body could not expel the invader in any way it knew how.

She shivered a deep shiver. “What are you doing...why are you inside me...”

There came no response, but Brigitte felt a tingling across her scalp and deep inside her head, like someone was touching her brain. She grabbed two fistfuls of hair and pulled it. “Get out! Get out of me!”

The tingling in her head spread, as if the creature inside her were cupping Brigitte’s brain with her massive, monstrous hands. Brigitte continued to freak out until she realized she was starting to feel slightly numb. The sensation in her head began to feel more like a gentle caress, and it dampened her will to resist. She sat quietly on her knees, trying to regulate her breathing and keep control of the situation. _I need to find Hana. Need to tell her what’s going on. Maybe Amélie knows how to help._

She tried to get to her feet, but an ice-cold fist around her heart prevented her from moving. The cold settled deep in her chest, into her very bones. _Hana..._ Her hand only got as far as reaching weakly outward for the doorway when it was stopped by the creature inside her.

She collapsed to the floor, Hana’s name still weakly on her lips.

* * *

 

When Hana finally found Brigitte, she was sitting on the floor in a dark chamber, hugging her knees.

“Brig, what are you doing here?” Hana knelt down beside her. “I know you’re mad, but it’s been hours. Can’t we start looking for a solution?”

Brigitte lifted her chin slightly. Her eyes searched Hana’s face, disgust evident within them. “It took you this long to look for me?”

“I thought you didn’t want me to follow you!”

“...Right. I did say that.”

Unable to contain herself any longer, Hana threw her arms around Brigitte. “I’m so sorry, Brig. We’ll get things figured out, I promise.”

Brigitte hugged her back, but the embrace was cold and distant. “I’d like that, Hana.”

They rejoined the others in the main chamber, where most everyone was already asleep (so much for them judging Sombra for it). The only creature still awake was Satya, who seemed to be waiting for Hana and Brigitte to return. She gave Hana a lick on the cheek. Brigitte studied them a moment, then licked Hana as well. Hana giggled and slapped her away. “So I guess you’re not mad at me anymore, then.”

“Have the two of you made peace?” Satya gave Brigitte a courteous lick, too. Brigitte nodded. “I am happy to hear that,” she continued. “Amélie spoke of a powerful dragon she met in her travels who may be able to aid us in restoring the earth to an inhabitable state.”

“Did she?” Brigitte turned her gaze on the little slumbering dragoness, studying her with the same ice she showed Hana earlier.

“But all the creatures would still be dead, wouldn’t they?” Hana said.

“I can only imagine so. Even the most powerful dragon in the world most likely cannot perform mass resurrections.”

“Although that would be amazing to see,” Brigitte said.

“Uh...yeah.” Hana’s stare lingered on Brigitte for a moment. It felt like she was acting strange. Maybe she was trying to push down her anger at Hana and was simply doing a poor job at faking optimism. “So I guess in the morning we’ll go looking for this dragon?”

“We have little other choice.”

With that they curled up and attempted to sleep through the night. For the dragons it was easy. For Hana and Brigitte it was apparently impossible. Hana cuddled up to Brigitte as they lay against Satya’s warm hide. Brigitte held her, but even that felt strange – every time Hana opened her eyes Brigitte was staring at her. After a while Hana said, “Jeez, afraid you’re gonna forget what I look like?”

After that Brigitte kept her eyes closed, but Hana still could not fall peacefully to sleep in her arms.


	2. One Flat Foot on the Devil's Wing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually get these chapters typed up at work, but lately they've been cracking down on us doing non-work stuff, hence the delay of this chapter. Sorry about that!

The morning brought Amélie acting strangely. It had started as soon as Hana and Brigitte finally woke up and Brigitte had lurked around Hana as they were getting ready to set out into the wastes. “I wonder who the dragon is that Amélie’s talking about,” Hana had asked off-handedly while she was using one of Brigitte’s ponytails to pull her own hair back out of her face. 

“Who knows.” Brigitte huffed. “She’s always on about something.”

Hana turned to her with a cocked eyebrow. “I didn’t know you hated her so much.”

“I don’t.” Brigitte turned away as Hana took her dingy, stained shirt off and shook it out in an attempt to clean off the sand. “I just don’t trust her, is all.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” She rolled her shirt up and snapped her wife in the back with it. Brigitte startled and whipped around. “Why are you turned away like you’ve never seen my boobs before?”

Brigitte’s lower lip curled in disgust. “I don’t have any interest in that. We’re trying to fix the world, remember?”

“Okay, what’s going on with you?” Hana moved around to face her, keeping herself in Brigitte’s sight no matter how much the other woman tried to turn away. “If you’re mad at me just...be mad at me. You have every right to be mad. Don’t act all weird and cold about it.”

For the briefest of moments Brigitte’s icy stare warmed just a little. She reached out and settled her fingers on the side of Hana’s face. “...Hana...”

“What is it?” Hana was immediately concerned. Brigitte looked weak, sickly all of a sudden. 

Brigitte closed her eyes and massaged her temples. When she re-opened them, she appeared mostly back to normal. “I’m just not feeling too well, I think. All that time unconscious probably didn’t help.”

Hana pulled her shirt back on and gave Brigitte a quick peck on the cheek. “If you’re not feeling good you don’t have to come with us. You can stay here and get your strength back.”

“Will Amélie be going? Or staying here?”

“Um, presumably going? Since she’s the only one who seems to know anything about this other dragon.”

“Then I’ll come, too.”

“Why? Are you afraid she’ll hurt us or something?”

Brigitte lifted Hana’s chin with one finger. “Of course. I wouldn’t want anyone endangering you.” Her breath had a strange, acidic smell to it. Hana winced.

“Um, okay then.” Maybe this was how Brigitte was when they weren’t dreaming? It had been so long Hana could barely even remember.

The weirdness continued when the group convened to prepare for their journey. Amélie immediately locked on to Hana and Brigitte with her eerie yellow eyes, and her mouth opened just enough to expose her slender fangs. Before Hana could investigate the reaction further Sombra scooped her up and set her down on her giant back. “So I’m guessing I’m ferrying everyone? Since I highly doubt you soft-footed monkeys will be able to walk through blistering sands for hours.”

“That would be optimal.” Brigitte climbed right aboard. She ran her fingers over Sombra’s shimmering violet scales and clicked her tongue. “I wonder what causes a different texture to manifest in your scales versus Amélie’s? Obviously genetics must play a role, but I wonder what kind of benefits the different textures confer...”

Amélie was watching her like a hawk. Brigitte sighed and, with a wry smile, folded her legs and sat back against Sombra’s dorsal crest. Hana climbed up beside her and attempted to take her hand. Brigitte accepted it, then held Hana’s hand up close to her face and examined it with interest. 

Fareeha clambered up beside them, followed by the dragonlings. Satya remained on the ground, in her dragon form. Amélie stuck by Sombra’s front paws. Every so often she peered around Sombra at the humans on Sombra’s back. Jesse had his usual spot on Sombra’s head – he hung on like a bull rider as she stood up and lifted her head high. 

“So,” Sombra said to the young dragoness, “you’re gonna lead us to this dragon?”

“I don’t know where she resides, exactly. I need to find the dragon who knows how to contact her.”

“So a dragon’s gonna lead us to a dragon who’s gonna lead us to a dragon who  _might_  be able to help us.” Sombra snorted. “Sure, why not.”

“And what’s the name of this dragon?” Brigitte spoke up.

Amélie looked her up and down. “You wouldn’t know him.”

Brigitte muttered something under her breath that Hana did not hear.

“All right,” Hana said quietly, “let’s go, I guess.”

* * *

 

It turned out that not all of the world was a desert wasteland. A lot of it was actually quite the opposite, overgrown and taken over by wildlife. It was as if some areas had been deprived of water and some had received an overabundance of it. In addition to that, some areas were covered in nothing but dark purple goop with a pungent chemical smell. The animals in those areas were deformed, misshapen, and highly aggressive. 

“It’s like they used our world as a testing ground,” Fareeha said at one point. Amélie kept her eyes on the path before them.

For a while they tried walking, but by the end of the first day of travel Sombra became a permanent living bus. The only creatures not riding on her back were Amélie, stalking the path beside Sombra, and Satya, who flew over and kept watch on the path ahead. The occasional time they came across a non-mutated animal Sombra snapped it up and devoured it. The rest of the group reamed her for it, to which she replied, “Hey, I’m using all my energy carrying you lazies around! I gotta eat.”

Amélie’s vague directions led them to an area that may have been a village at one point. Now it was nothing but a pile of scrap metal forming what looked to be the entrance to an underground bunker. It must have been quite the sight to anyone watching when they arrived, four humans, three dragons, and five 14-year-old hybrids landing at the giant metal doors of the hideout like a traveling circus arriving for a performance.

Sombra was priming to knock the doors down when Fareeha stopped her. “Hello!” Fareeha called out instead, pushing Sombra away. “We’re peaceful! We’re looking for a certain dragon to talk to, if they’re here.”

Nothing happened.

“Reminds me of the last time I saw my town,” Fareeha murmured, sitting back down on Sombra’s back. Satya leaned up and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek.

“Hey!” Sombra shouted, pounding a paw against the door. “We're trying to save the world here! The least you can do is let us in!”

When no one answered Hana looked to Amélie. “This is definitely the last place you saw this dragon?”

Amélie nodded.

Their confusion was cut short by a noise. A voice echoed nearby, somehow everywhere and nowhere at once. 

Hana spun around. “Who’s there?”

It took a few seconds, but then they heard the voice again. It came in short bursts, like a shorting wire trying to send a signal. 

The next time Hana turned around she was greeted by the sight of a human woman mere centimeters from her. The woman opened her mouth as if to say something, but before she could speak she disappeared into nothingness.

“What the heck??” Hana took a step backward. “Did you guys see that?”

“I did.” Brigitte glanced about. “Hello? Miss?”

They heard the voice again. Then suddenly the woman was between the two of them. “I can’t-” She barely got the two words out before she vanished again.

“Are you okay?” Fareeha took on that knightly tone of hers, straightening her posture to appear commanding. “Ma’am, if you need assistance we can–”

Blurs of light and motion appeared all around them. It didn’t seem mischievous or devious – the creature appeared genuinely distressed. 

Sombra took no pity on her. “Hey, can you stop zapping all around and just let us the hell in? We came a long way and we’re tired.” After tracing the woman’s movements for a few seconds Sombra huffed. A bolt of lightning arced from her mouth and struck the creature, taking her down. 

Fareeha gasped. “ _Sombra!”_

The woman fell to the ground, raw electricity dancing across her body. A strange device on her chest flickered, then lit up a radiant blue. She lay stunned for a moment before sitting up and gazing down at the glowing device. “My chronal accelerator! Ya juiced it up again!” Apparently fully corporeal now, the woman threw her arms around Sombra’s snout. “Thank you so much! Once it ran outta power and I couldn’t recharge it I was useless!”

“...What?” Sombra studied her. “I was trying to get you to stop bothering us.”

“Take the credit, hon,” Jesse whispered into her ear.

“...Right.” Sombra changed her expression. “I mean, I totally meant to do whatever I did. As repayment I demand you let us into your base.”

To their surprise, the woman laughed. “All righty, gimme just one second!”

In a flash, she was gone.

“Well that was...interesting,” Fareeha murmured.

“There are all sorts of unusual survivors left on this planet,” Amélie said. “Human...and otherwise.”

With a jarring scrape the giant metal door swung open. The group clustered around the entrance and peered inside. What revealed itself to them from the darkness was a large, muscular creature with dark fur and long yellow fangs behind its thin lips.

“Hi there!” the creature said. His deep voice was surprisingly jovial.

Brigitte stared, dumbfounded. “Are you a...talking gorilla?”

“I certainly am.” He half-walked, half-loped over to them. “And you’re...” He pointed with one big finger. “Four humans, three dragons, and five...”

“Dragons,” Hemakshi said.

“Three dragons, and five other dragons. Got it.” The creature smiled at them. “Lena just told me what you did for her. Ever since we lost the electrical grid I haven’t been able to keep her tethered to the present time. She keeps bouncing all around through the past, present, and future...”

“What is she?” Hana asked. “Not human, right?”

“No, she’s human. She suffered a freak time-traveling accident.” He beckoned them to follow. “Anyway, come on in! We’ve got a few other oddball creatures here, you’ll fit right in!”

“So do you have any dragons here?” Hana asked.

“We’ve got one. Are you looking for him?”

“Depends if he’s the right one, I guess.”

With some hesitation they followed the gorilla inside the bunker. “My name’s Winston, by the way.” He adjusted his glasses as he loped down a long, descending hallway.

“I’m Hana. And, uh...” She pointed rapid-fire at everyone else. “Brigitte, Satya, Sombra, Jesse, Amélie, Fareeha, Jyoti, Hemakshi, Aziza, Ashaar, and Hashim.”

“Oh, uh, of course.” Winston chuckled. “I’ll do my best to remember all of that.”

The narrow hallway opened up into a wide cavern below ground, easily as large as the cave in Sombra’s old mountain. Instantly Hana locked on to a long, radiant emerald dragon with whiskers and tiny legs that were utterly disproportionate to its serpentine body, yet somehow managed to look majestic rather than silly. “Satya, look!”

Satya had already noticed. “It’s a male,” she replied dismissively.

Hana had never been up close with a male dragon, at least not in this life. The dragon immediately took interest in them, snaking his way over with an oddly fluid grace.

“I never thought we’d find more dragons,” Winston remarked as he stepped aside to let them meet.

“Greetings!” The green dragon approached them with relaxed ears and unexposed teeth. “I am Genji.”

“Hello, Genji.” Satya gave him a cordial nod. “I am Satya. This is my mate, Fareeha.” She all but pushed Fareeha in front of her.

“Hello.” Fareeha gave the dragon a little wave.

Genji moved over to Sombra. Before he could say anything Sombra cut him off. “I’m taken.”

Genji chuckled a litle. “Of course. I was just saying hello.”

“Genji, are you flirting with the new girls already??” The mysterious disappearing woman, Lena, appeared by Genji’s side and tugged playfully on his whiskers. “Don’t mind him. He’s always like this.”

“I was just being nice!” His ears curled downward.

Amélie said nothing. Hana couldn’t tell if he was the correct dragon or not.

“So, ya want me to show you around the rest of this place?” The woman seemed raring to go, a stark contrast to the dark and dismal wasteland the rest of the world had become. She stared up at the dragons with clear fascination in her eyes.

“Very well,” Satya said. “But just so you know, we are prepared to defend ourselves should the need arise.”

Lena raised her eyebrows at the threat. “Uh, okay. You won’t need to worry about that!” She took Hana by the arm and practically dragged her down toward a deeper chamber. “So if you don’t mind my askin’, how the heck did you guys end up so unscathed in the middle of all this mess?”

“We’ve been out of it for a while,” Hana replied.

Lena paused. “Like...out of time?”

“No. Well, kinda? We were put to sleep by...something, and ended up sleeping for like thirteen years. We just woke up a few days ago, actually.”

“Ohh. Weird!” Lena turned down a narrow rock hallway that was lit by torches on the wall. “We’ve been trying to rebuild here ever since that nasty Deathwing took over. She chased us all underground. Now we’re kinda used to livin’ down here.”

Amélie’s eyes remained fixed on the ground. Hana wondered if they recognized her. Probably not, since how many humans would allow the dragon who had destroyed the world into their fallout bunker?  _It seems like she can shift form pretty easily. Maybe she appeared different then._

“When was the last time you saw Deathwing?” Brigitte asked from behind them.

“Oh, it’s been ages. I don’t have any real concept of time, but...”

“Yeah, what was up with you earlier?” Hana asked. “Are you a ghost or something?”

“Oh no, no. I mean...not really. I’m alive. Sorta. I think.”

Hana quirked a brow.

“...I went through a pretty messed-up high speed plane malfunction that kind of killed me and made me unkillable at the same time. Now I sorta just hop through time. Winston made me this chronal accelerator to keep me tethered to this time period, but I don’t really ‘belong’ in any time anymore.” She shrugged, oddly nonchalant about the existential nightmare she was describing. “But it’s had its benefits. I’ve seen everythin’ - I’ve been billions of years in the past and millions of years in the future. I’ve seen the rise and fall of humanity and everything that came before and comes afterward – well, in little snippets, at least. I can’t decipher much of it.” Her words were accompanied by a chuckle. “But I know that Deathwing isn’t this world’s downfall. Not by a long shot.”

“So you can time travel?” Brigitte didn’t even ask about everything else she had said. Apparently she, like Hana, was still stuck on that first point.

“Yeah! And it’s pretty neat, honestly.” She led them into a tiny, dark “room” carved out of the tightly-packed dirt of the deep earth. Despite the number of years that had passed Hana’s heart rate began to accelerate. Brigitte seemed suspicious, too, though she was not nearly as terrified of the concept of being trapped under the earth as Hana, with the ghost of Deathwing’s old memories.

“Why are you leading us down here?” Hana finally couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh, you’re not scared’a small spaces, are ya?” She studied their faces with concern. “I’m sorry. I can tell her to come out here instead.”

“Who?”

Lena clicked her tongue. Moments later something slithered out from between two stalagmites deep in the cavern. It resembled a human female from the waist up, save for its smooth, shiny skin, but from the waist down it was completely serpentine. Long orange hair framed its face – a face that was defined by slitted yellow eyes and snake-like nostrils in place of a human nose. 

“This is my girlfriend, Emily!” Lena declared, a huge smile on her face. “She’s a snake person from 7 million A.D.!”

The creature, ‘Emily’ apparently, gave them a friendly wave with her clawed fingers.

“She likes living underground,” Lena continued, apparently oblivious to how much everyone was staring at the creature before them. “So that makes it a little easier to deal with.”

“Oh. Wow.” Brigitte tried obviously not to stare at the woman. “So you’re gay?”

“ _That’s_  the thing you’re thinking about with this?” Hana whispered.

“Oh yeah. I’m a lesbian.” Lena puffed her chest out a little. “Ya don’t get a problem with that, do ya?”

“Well that would be pretty bad if I did,” Brigitte said, “considering Hana and I are married.”

“Whaaat?” Lena’s eyes flicked between them. “No way!”

Hana nodded. “Twelve years.”

“Oh my God, that’s so sweet!” Lena squished her cheeks. “I met Emily here, uh...”

Emily watched her, her tongue occasionally flicking the air.

“...it was a while ago anyways. I told you I have no concept of time.” Lena wrapped an arm around Emily’s scaly waist and drew her in close. “Anyway, we’re learnin’ each other’s languages. It’s hard, ‘cause her mouth is evolved to make sounds mine can’t, but we’re makin’ the best of it.”

Emily coiled her tail around Lena and picked her right up off the ground. Lena made a guttural sound in the back of her throat, then clicked her tongue. Emily cuddled her close.

“So is there anyone else down here?” At some point Fareeha had saddled up beside them. She was studying the unfamiliar couple with interest. “It’s not just you two, that gorilla guy, and that one dragon, right?”

“Actually that is all of us. There used to be a few more, but they went their own ways. Like we used to have another dragon, but he was kind of a bastard. We kicked him out after he tried to kill Genji.”

Amélie perked up at that. “Do you know where he went?”

“Not a clue. Hopefully somewhere far away, since he was a massive tosser.”

Emily slithered over to the two of them. Her eyes reminded Hana almost of a dragon’s, though not quite the same.  _I wonder if her kind came from humans mating with dragons_ _._ _Probably not, but..._

“Your family?” She surprised them both with her rough, hissy English.

"Oh, no,” Hana replied. “We’re looking for this other dragon because he might know something important to us.”

Emily looked to Lena. “You could help them?”

“Um, not really?”

Emily tapped a claw on Lena’s chronal accelerator.

“No, that wouldn’t work. I can’t control it well enough.”

“What is she trying to imply?” Brigitte asked.

“I think she wants me to try to jump back in time and figure out where he ended up.”

Emily nodded.

“But I can’t control it like that, luv. I can control a few seconds, but when it comes to years or more I’m just jumpin’ around randomly. And I can’t just take people with me, either. You were an accident.”

Emily stuck her long, flat tongue out.

“It’s quite all right.” Brigitte waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m sorry, though.” Lena frowned. “If it makes ya feel any better I’ve never been able to get back to my time and find my family again. My abilities are kinda useless to everyone.”

“Wait, you’re not from this time period?” Fareeha had appeared next to Hana, apparently as curious as the rest of them.

“No. I’m from the future – the 23rd century, specifically. That’s how I know Deathwing doesn’t destroy this world.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What happens to him?” Satya had taken her human form to fit in the low cavern. Hana immediately felt better in her presence.

“’Him’?” Lena scrunched her face. “I thought Deathwing was a girl.”

“Ah, right. So what happens to her?”

“I really don’t know. In my old present timeline she’s just...not a thing.”

Amélie’s tail dragged back and forth across the floor. 

“How much do you know about Deathwing?” Brigitte asked. “Have you ever seen her?”

“I never saw her, no. Just the storms and stuff that she created. All that weird chemical rain and stuff...”

"That’s a little scary,” Brigitte said. “She could be anywhere and we wouldn’t even know.”

Amélie cast a look over at her.

“I know!” Lena laid a hand on Brigitte’s broad shoulder. “But don’t worry, we all watch each other’s backs here. Deathwing won’t sneak past us!”

They all made awkward sounds of agreement.

“So the dragon you sent away for attempting to kill the other male here,” Amélie said, “you do not know where he ended up?”

“No. That was a long time ago. Years, I think.”

"Would the other dragon here know?” Hana asked.

“Huh. I guess he might.”

“Maybe we should talk to him?” Hana looked to Satya, an old habit. Satya simply looked back at her, awaiting her call. “I mean, okay. Let’s talk to him, then.”

Her decision seemed to go for everyone.  _When did I become the leader of my friend group?_ Even Sombra, with her difficult nature, usually went along with what Hana wanted to do. It seemed even after their separation that some of Deathwing’s nature as a once-respected leader remained within her.

The oddball group all clustered around her as they trekked back up toward the main chamber.

* * *

 

At the mention of the other dragon Genji’s eyes went dark, wholly unlike when the group had first encountered him. His tone was somber as well.

“Do you know where he is?” Hana had asked.

“I do.” Genji swept his gaze over all of them. “And if you would like me to share that information with you, I can. But I cannot accompany you there.”

“Oh, well that sounds really trustworthy,” Sombra said. “You could be sending us into a death trap, but hey, what do I know?” She looked to Hana. “What do  _you_ think?”

Like Sombra, her past experiences gave her pause. “I do think it sounds a little suspicious.”

“I know how it sounds. But I promise you that my accompaniment would only make things more difficult for you.” He reached around with the spade of his tail and carved a line into the dirt at their feet. “He resides outside of my dominion, in the land claimed by the south wind. I cannot go there, but you should be able to pass without issue.”

“Where’s ‘the land claimed by the south wind’?” Brigitte’s face was screwed up in confusion as she stared at the line, as if it would provide any sort of explanation.

“I can mark it for you on a map, but that is all I can do.”

“Why won’t you go there? Why should we set foot in there if you won’t?”

Genji simply shook his head again. “It is not my territory. Any other male dragon entering that land would be slaughtered.”

“Oh.” 

“Males play silly games over imaginary borders,” Satya said. “Nothing I ever desired to partake in.”

Genji studied her a moment, as if to say something, but he refrained. 

“Well this is our only lead so far,” Fareeha said. “It’s this or just wander aimlessly until our lungs fill up with sand and we die.”

“That’s true.” Hana deliberated for only a moment before making her decision. “Okay. Draw us up a map. We’ll go there.”

They followed Genji as he slithered off to a deeper chamber, presumably to create a map for them.

* * *

 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come?” Lena followed them all the way to the entrance, Emily right behind her. “’Cause we will.”

“I think we have enough creatures to transport already.” Hana cast a pointed look around at all of her friends and loved ones. They were pretty much their own caravan. 

Lena frowned. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

Brigitte had Genji’s map from the night before, and was studying it atop Sombra’s back. “Doesn’t look like he knows exactly where he’ll be,” she noted. “The territory’s pretty huge.”

“It’s a start.” Hana climbed up onto Satya’s back. The cool bumps of her scales were oddly reassuring. In a world turned upside-down, at least her mother-figure had not changed. Satya welcomed her aboard with a lick to the face. Hana wiped the excess saliva off her face and smiled in spite of herself. 

Satya fanned her wings out. Moments later they were thrown into shade by Sombra opening her mighty wings over hers. “May I have some take-off room?” Satya muttered.

“Whoops, sorry.” Sombra took a few steps backward. Satya rolled her eyes, then began running forward. Hana held on tight as she beat her wings and then leapt, taking to the air. The wind whipped at her eyes and through her hair, spurring Hana to bury her face against Satya’s back. It was strange to be a passenger of flight rather than the creature doing the flying. An odd sensation tickled its way across her back as she watched Satya’s wings stretch and beat.  _I miss flying..._

They were practically thrown off-course by the strength of Sombra’s wingbeats just a few seconds behind them. It took a long run to get her off the ground, but when she took off it looked incredible. Hana would never have believed that such a huge creature could fly through the air, yet there she was, carving right through it with her gigantic amethyst wings. On her back rode Jesse, Brigitte, and all of the halflings, and even all of their combined weight did not drag Sombra down. She was really pretty amazing in that regard.

“Bye!” Lena and Emily waved them off. Hana gave a small wave back, uncertain if they could see her from how far away they were. “Good luck!”

And so with nothing but a crappy map from an unreliable source, they took off into the wastes.


	3. The Dragon of the South Wind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, huh? ^^;

They wouldn’t have needed a map to know when they reached the kingdom of the south wind. It was the only place in the world that seemed untouched by Deathwing’s wrath. Grass grew, wild but not uncontrollable, and wildflowers dotted the land all over. Buildings still stood, although they were abandoned by humans, it seemed, and birds sang in all the surrounding trees.

“Wow.” Hana surveyed the land as they settled in a peaceful clearing. “This place is beautiful.”

“The dragon who claims this land must guard it fiercely,” Satya said. “We should tread lightly here.”

“Psh, like I’m scared of some wimpy little male dragon.” Sombra’s mouth sparked. “Let him challenge me.”

“Let him not,” Fareeha murmured. “We’ve been through enough already.”

They wound through the tranquil woods as quietly as a group of twelve creatures, including three dragons, could. The birds all fled from them. Hana tried to remember where they’d been and where they were going in case they got lost, but her mind gradually lost interest in that as she started to remember the way soft, wild grass had felt under her paws when she wasn’t dreaming. At one point she lifted her head to stare over at Satya and Sombra. Her back was still tingling where she’d had wings in the past. _Why am I feeling this way?_ She _did_ miss being a dragon at times, but she didn’t miss any of the crap that came with it – the violence, the greed, the isolation. It was all just dreadful.

Brigitte was studying her again. “What?” Hana scrunched her face up at her. Quickly, however, she realized that Brigitte looked unwell. There were dark bags under her eyes, and those eyes were glassy and unfocused. A touch of her hand revealed she was clammy and sweaty as well. “Whoa, Brig, you’re so cold. What’s going on?”

“I don’t...” Brigitte combed a hand through her long red hair, which Hana noticed was separated with sweat. “...I don’t feel well.”

“Brigitte, something’s wrong with you. I can tell.” Hana tried to touch her cheek, but Brigitte drew back.

“Get away from me.” Brigitte backed up until she bumped up against a tree trunk. The rest of the group seemed finally to notice her sickly state. Her gaze flicked back and forth as they all closed in on her, wearing looks ranging from concern to suspicion. “I’m sick, Hana,” she said. “I might be contagious.”

Hana remained close to her. “Sick with what?”

Brigitte collapsed to her knees. Her fists closed around clumps of her hair that she pulled at with trembling hands. “I don’t know...I can’t...remember...”

“Um, what the hell?” Sombra leaned down to her, squinting. “Are you gonna be okay?”

Amélie was watching her intently. Brigitte would not make eye contact with the small dragoness. “...Yes,” she murmured, her tone changing. “Just feeling a little faint.”

“You are acting strange,” Amélie said. “I feel I have seen this before.”

To Hana’s surprise, Brigitte’s eyes flared with anger. “ _You_ stay out of this.”

Amélie growled. Instead of flames or sparks a toxic cloud of purple smog leaked out from between her bared teeth. It choked Hana, who had to drag herself away from it before it filled her lungs completely.

“Why do you trust her?” Brigitte pointed menacingly at Amélie. “After everything _she_ did – not just her accomplices, but she herself as well – you’d forgive her so easily? You’d _trust_ her?” She stormed right into the midst of Amélie’s venomous smog, seemingly undeterred by it. “I would _never_ -”

Something whistled through the air and struck Brigitte dead in the chest. The force slammed her against a tree. The projectile was glowing – Hana quickly realized it was an arrow. Its glow spread across Brigitte’s body, as if it were taking root, and bound her to the tree’s mighty trunk. “Brigitte!” Hana was at her side in a second, trying to yank the arrow out. Brigitte’s eyes squeezed shut as she waved her weakly away.

When Hana turned to seek out the source of the arrow, she found a man standing on the roof of one of the abandoned buildings. He was cloaked in loose, ancient-looking clothing. In his hands he clutched an ornate bow.

“Hey, stop!” Fareeha held her palms out. “We don’t mean you any harm! We’re peaceful!”

The man folded his arms. “You think I do not see through your flimsy disguise?”

Amélie stepped forward into his line of sight. Upon seeing her he simply clucked his tongue. “I warned you not to return to this place.”

Brigitte groaned weakly. Hana wanted to tend to her, but had no idea how to treat an arrow wound to the chest. Thankfully it hadn’t hit her heart, or so Hana assumed since Brigitte hadn’t died yet. “Brig...” Hana rested her hand on Brigitte’s shoulder, not sure what else to do. “What can I do to help?”

“Ugh...” Brigitte gritted her teeth. “This is no good. The downside to having a strong, solid body...” She leaned forward as much as she could and started coughing. The coughing soon turned to heaving, and then Hana noticed something begin to dribble out of her mouth. It wasn’t blood – it was a deep purple, almost black. The grass it landed in withered and died on contact. Likewise, it seemed to be taking Brigitte’s very life force with it – her skin turned a horrible grey as she slumped forward, and her eyes stared dead ahead, unfocused on anything around her.

“Brigitte??” Hana leaned in and gently wiped the strange purple-black goo from her chin. Brigitte twitched, then coughed a whole lungful of it right into Hana’s face. “Eugh!” Hana furiously wiped it off. It stung her skin like a weak acid. “What the heck is going on with you?”

There was no sound to warn her before she felt a razor-sharp arrow tip poke her between the shoulder blades. She turned slowly to find the mystery man looming over her – well, just barely looming, since he wasn’t all that much taller than her. His bow was drawn, its arrow tip right up against her back.

“Wait!” Amélie transformed back into her humanoid form. Her strange body melded like putty as she slid herself in between Hana and the strange man. “I am not here to bring ruin to your land.”

“Perhaps _you_ aren’t.” He turned his weapon on Brigitte, who was still seeping toxic goop from her pale lips. As it spread on the ground it brought instant death to every plant in range. “But this one is already poisoning it.”

“She’s sick,” Hana said.

The man scoffed. “ _Sick._ I am all too familiar with this ‘sickness’ of hers.”

“I am, too.” Amélie turned to Brigitte, her eyes dark. “I thought you wanted to go separate ways.”

To Hana’s surprise, Brigitte hissed at her. “That was what _you_ wanted! When you chose this band of fools over the being who took care of you since you were a chemical spill that couldn’t even speak!” From out her mouth more purple bile poured out. It collected and changed shape in the grass, building itself up into a recognizable form. As Brigitte’s limp body slumped forward the creature before it took shape, casting its clawed hands out as it threw them triumphantly outward.

Amélie’s eyes narrowed. ““You could have come with me. You didn’t have to hide yourself inside another creature.”

“I’d been feeling quite weak of late,” Moira said. She held out one palm, and a dark ooze began to leak from it. When she closed that hand into a fist, it soaked back into her flesh. “I thought I might have needed a new body. But it would seem I only needed its energy.”

Brigitte was lying motionless against the tree trunk, her flesh pale as death. “Brigitte?” Hana nudged her. “Brig?” Her eyes were open, but vacant, staring past Hana rather than at her.

Fareeha knelt down at her other side. She reached down and started feeling for a pulse. “She’s alive,” she murmured. Proving her words, Brigitte blinked slowly.

“Be gone from this place.” The man turned his bow on Moira. “I defeated your ilk once. I will gladly do it again.”

“I would _hardly_ say you _defeated_ us.” Moira’s long, melty fingers stretched out and grasped the arrow aimed at her. The man tried to fire it, but it made no impact in her gooey flesh. “Although what you did to Angela was certainly tragic.”

“Who’s Angela?” Hana whispered to Amélie. Amélie lowered her chin.

“The witch. But it was not Hanzo who finished her.”

Moira examined her dripping fingernails. “He might as _well_ have.”

“I saw the heart of this vile creature.” The man stepped back, yanking his bow free from her weak grip. “I saw her devour the soul of her own ally to absorb her power. I saw her destroy the world for her own twisted curiosity.” A slash from the tip of his arrow chopped her reaching hand right off. It fell to the ground, then immediately crawled back up Moira’s lanky body to reattach itself.

“Moira devoured the soul of the witch and gained her strength,” Amélie murmured. “Just as she has done to your...friend.”

“What??” Hana leaped to her feet. “You ate her soul?!?”

“It’s not something I do intentionally.” Moira shrugged, as casual as if she were confessing to eating their leftovers. “I’m learning new things about myself every day. As we should _all_ strive to.”

“Why do you think I do not want this _abomination_ here?” The man’s eyes began to glow a fierce blue. Suddenly he changed form, growing long legs, a tail, and shining blue scales over the entirety of his body. Within moments he stomped his clawed paws into the dirt, fixing them with a glare from his golden, draconic eyes.

“...Oh.” Hana looked him up and down. He was the same slender shape as Genji, but much larger – he was a bit bigger than Satya. Under his fierce stare she could feel a chill stirring up around her, tossing her hair all around. “So you’re the dragon of the south wind, then.”

“I am. And this land is _mine._ ” His voice, like Satya’s, had a rough, growling quality to it while in dragon form. “Leave this place. Now.”

“We need your assistance,” Amélie spoke up. “That is why I sought you out, Hanzo.”

The he-dragon sneered. “You come here and poison my land, bring destruction to the entire world – and you have the audacity to expect aid from me? You do not even honor my territorial boundaries.” He shot a pointed look at Satya and Sombra. Sombra’s ears flattened as she scowled at him.

“We can _restore_ this world with your help.” Amélie stood her ground. “In fact, we could expand your territory.”

“At the cost of lending my power to a pair of monsters.”

“So, um, Brigitte...” Hana gestured to her limp wife. Her eyes were glazed over, devoid of any sort of awareness of what was going on around her.

“Oh, she’ll be fine.” Moira flicked a dismissive wrist in Brigitte’s direction. “She’s just a little low in spirits.”

They heard a strange noise behind Moira. Hana turned to find Amélie trying, and largely failing, to hold in a laugh.

“Are you serious??” Hana glared at her.

“What? It was a good joke. Low in spirits, because Moira consumed her–”

“ _I get it,_ it’s just not _funny_.”

Moira turned to Amélie. “Oh, so _now_ you appreciate my sense of humor?”

Amélie shrugged.

Apparently through with warnings, the dragon apparently known as Hanzo snapped his jaws around Moira’s lanky body. Of course, Moira simply dissolved and reformed outside of his jaws. “Leave this place!” he thundered. “I will not help you!” He must have realized attacking Moira would be pointless, for he instead turned his viciousness on Amélie. He chomped down on her and shook his head violently back and forth. Amélie’s equally-amorphous body dripped out between his teeth, but he had enough of a grip on her to prevent her from escaping entirely. She cried out as he threw his head back and tossed her up, ready to swallow her.

“Get away from her!” Moira was on him in a second, blinding him with the acid her body secreted. With a hiss he dropped Amélie from his jaws and staggered backward. Moira pursued him, leapt up onto his back and jabbed her sharp claws into his tender sides. As she fought against the dragon Hana realized there was a familiarity to her movements. The way she carried herself was no longer the slinky and vaguely malevolent movements of a cartoonish monster. Her steps were bold and confident, like a born warrior.

Hana bit her lip as tears formed in the pits of her eyes. _That bitch took her...her heart..._

Before even she knew what was happening Hana flung herself, screeching, at Moira. She knocked the woman off Hanzo and pinned her to the ground. Her fists rained down on Moira’s face and body, but they made no real impact – Moira's skin absorbed the shock like rubber. “What in the world are you doing?” The woman’s words were slightly distorted by Hana socking her directly in the mouth.

“Aw yeah, we’re finally crumbling into chaos!” Sombra grabbed Satya and bowled her into the nearest thicket of bushes. The dragonlings all started fighting amongst each other, biting and scratching like children.

Hanzo glanced around at all the confusion. Amidst the disarray Hana caught sight of Amélie sneaking off deeper into the he-dragon's territory. Moira seemed to notice as well, for she tried to slip away in that direction. Hana grabbed her by the hair and punched her again.

The sky darkened as the dragon of the south wind reared up on his hind legs and roared. With one sweep of his mighty tail he knocked most of the creatures flat. The only one who wasn’t toppled was, of course, Sombra, who grabbed his tail in one paw and held firm to it.

“Okay, we get it. You don’t play well with others. But this is bigger than you, little man.” Sombra picked him up by his tail. He squirmed and flailed like a caught snake.

“Let me down!” A blast of ice breath was just barely deflected by Sombra’s leathery wingskin. “I will not be _disrespected_ in this manner!”

“You’re so noodly.” Sombra wriggled her paw, letting Hanzo’s serpentine body swing back and forth. “Even by male dragon standards this is pathetic.”

“Sombra, put him down,” Satya growled at her. “We need assistance, not more enemies.”

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Sombra dropped him to the ground. “ _Thank_ you,” he said to Satya, raising his chin with a haughty huff. “At least not _all_ of you are tactless ill-breds.”

“That is not usually my way, no.” Satya shook her head as she strolled past him and Sombra. “Amélie says you may know a dragon who could help us restore the world to its previous state. Before it was experimented upon.” She cast a glare over her shoulder at Moira, who wore a small smirk as she shrugged.

“I know many dragons.” Icy fog drifted from his mouth and nostrils as he huffed at them once again. “To whom are you referring?”

His question was answered by silence as they realized Amélie was no longer there. Immediately Hanzo was on alert. His lanky body darted forward as he began to sniff the air and search the empty street.

Hana shuddered. At first she believed it to be the cold of the wind dragon’s breath, but when she glanced over at the rest of her group she realized Moira’s chilling gaze was upon her. It didn’t seem as malicious as usual, though – especially considering Hana had just attacked her. Normally her stare was piercing, like she was examining your very soul. As she looked upon Hana this time, her eyes were almost soft.

“What are _you_ looking at?” Hana snarled anyway.

Moira scowled. “Not much. An empty shell, really.”

“I think you’re getting me confused with my wife. You know, the one whose soul you _ate._ ”

Moira rolled her bony shoulders. “Young Brigitte’s greatest aspiration was to protect and care for other creatures, was it not? She certainly helped _me_ feel better.”

“You bitch,” Hana hissed through gritted teeth. “I’ll rip you apart.”

“Good luck with that.” Moira reached over and patted her on the head. “Perhaps you might have had better luck when you were a dragon.”

Hanzo had disappeared somewhere deep into his territory, presumably in pursuit of Amélie. The rest of the group made a move to follow him, but Satya hesitated, and glanced back at Hana, who was still lingering near Brigitte. “What shall we do with her?” she quietly asked.

Brigitte was still alive, but she was clearly not there with them. Even a gentle kiss from Hana did not bring her attention back. She blinked slowly, and looked up with cloudy eyes at Hana, but she did not respond. _Her body’s able to do the bare minimum to stay alive, but without a soul she’s a zombie._ Hana hugged her tight. “I’m sorry, Brigitte. You’ve suffered so much because of me.”

“Hey, you can’t claim _all_ the credit.” Moira chuckled, studying her scythe-like fingernails. “Hm. I rather enjoy having a sense of humor. Kudos to your wife for that.”

Hana’s teeth clenched and ground against one another. If she still had her dragon soul she would have eaten this hag in a second.

Knowing she had no way to destroy Moira, she simply exhaled her held breath and unclenched her fists. Her eyes were stinging, but she wasn’t about to let this abomination see her cry. Moira would probably want to sample her tears or something.

“Er...”

The next time she brought herself to glance up at Moira, the woman had that surprisingly soft expression again. She was staring at Hana. “What?” Hana scowled at her.

“I...” Moira continued studying her hand, this time seemingly in avoidance of Hana’s gaze. “...I’m not sure. I’m having an unexpected reaction of some sort.”

Hana raised an eyebrow. “What kind of ‘unexpected reaction’?”

“Your perceived sadness is creating a similar feeling in me.” Moira tapped her chin. “Perhaps I do possess mirror neurons after all.”

“Or ‘perhaps’ it’s because you sucked the life out of my wife – you know, a creature who would definitely feel those kinds of feelings?”

“Also a valid theory.”

“So me feeling sad is making you sad.” Hana studied her. “Maybe Brigitte’s spirit is taking you over. She’s really strong.”

“I doubt that, child. I am a being of raw power myself.”

Hana’s fingers drifted to where she would have fidgeted with her wedding ring before she remembered it didn’t exist in the waking world. Moira’s mismatched eyes followed her hands. “The last night we spent together,” Hana murmured, “she asked me if I’d ever consider having kids.”

At that Moira snickered. “And how would _that_ come about? Biologically–”

“Shut up.” Hana knelt back down beside Brigitte’s empty shell. “We had such a good life together. I know it was all a dream or whatever, but it was real to us. To me.” She rested her forehead against Brigitte’s. “Maybe you should just eat my soul, too.”

“Gladly.” No sooner had Moira’s claws settled on Hana’s shoulder than Hana jerked forward and involuntarily hissed.

“I wasn’t serious!”

“Oh my.” Moira was grinning now, revealing her long, sharp teeth. “Still a bit feral after all these years, hm?”

“Hey.” Suddenly Moira was pulled away. Hana realized Fareeha had her by the gooey “scruff” of her neck. “Leave her alone.”

“Oh, Ms. Amari! My dearest apologies.” Moira gave an exaggerated bow as she backed off of Hana. “I would never want bad blood between myself and the most interesting specimen here.”

“How the hell am I an ‘interesting specimen?’” The disgust on Fareeha’s face was tangible.

“I would _love_ to see the results of an endometrial biopsy from a human female who was impregnated by a dragon. The fact that you carried hybrid children to term – five of them, no less – is simply fascinating to me. I can’t help but wonder what changes it wrought upon your body, and whether you are even still 100% genetically human.”

Fareeha’s eye twitched. “You just...sit around thinking about what my uterus looks like?”

“Well you aren’t the only subject of my interest, of course. Those offspring of yours are scientific marvels as well. I’d love to–”

Fareeha grabbed her by the front of her ridiculous purple coat. “Touch one scale on any of them and you _die.”_

“Interesting. So you protect them like human children, despite the usual custom of dragons banishing their offspring at puberty.”

“You’re damn right I do.”

“My love.” The tip of an orange tail coiled around Fareeha’s waist. Satya picked her up and dropped her onto her wide, scaly back. The tail then reached out to Hana.

“I’m not leaving Brigitte.” Hana rested a hand on the arrow that kept Brigitte pinned to the tree. Brigitte’s empty eyes drifted down to it as well, but her expression did not change.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Moira grabbed the arrow and yanked it right out. Brigitte gasped. Blood began to pour out of the wound where the arrowhead had pierced on its way in and torn open on its way back out. “There. She’s free.”

“Moira!” Hana pressed her hand over the wound to try to stall the bleeding. Brigitte simply watched as her blood welled between Hana’s fingers and dribbled down her hand. “Oh my God, was that in your heart??”

A burst of flame beside her caught Hana’s attention. Satya’s tail was glowing from the heat of her fire breath, aimed squarely at her own scales. The tail then swung outward and gingerly pressed against Brigitte’s open wound. Brigitte did not flinch as Satya attempted to cauterize the wound with nothing but her molten tail blade. Thankfully it actually seemed to help – the blood stopped pouring out. A huge hole was burned into the middle of her shirt, though, and her skin now had burns on it as well.

Immediately Hana grabbed her up and pulled her much-larger wife into her arms. Brigitte was like a ragdoll in her grasp. Hana lugged her over to Satya and draped her carefully over Satya’s back before climbing onboard herself. The dragonlings stayed on foot, and Jesse, of course, remained on Sombra.

“Where will you go?” Moira drifted after them, her elf-like feet barely touching the ground. “That dragon warned you not to intrude upon his territory. You will surely suffer consequences if you do.”

Hana propped Brigitte up. “He didn’t care about _us_ intruding. It was _you.”_

“Well you can’t very well leave me here.” Moira followed after them. “Surely the knowledge I’ve gained over these years in your world could be helpful to you.”

“If I had the opportunity, I would kill you,” Hana said.

“...Understandable.” Moira touched down on the ground and instead strode up beside them. “But surely I can be useful for _something_. I am extremely resilient.”

“Just go awa–” As Hana turned to shout down at her she realized Moira was massaging the flesh of her ring finger. It gave Hana pause, and in that moment of hesitation Moira made a strange gesture – a tiny head toss, the kind one would do if they had long hair to flip out of their face. Of course, there wasn’t any hair there, and Moira herself seemed uncertain what she was doing. But Hana had seen it a million times before. “...Brig?”

“I...” Moira combed her bony fingers through her short hair. “I’m really having a...strange...”

“Brigitte!” Hana hopped right down off Satya’s back and made direct eye contact with the creature that had eaten her wife’s soul. “Are you still in there?”

“Hana.” Satya scooped her back up, then used her tail to brush Moira away. “This creature is a master of deception. You know that by now.”

Moira collapsed to her knees, wide eyes fixed on the ground. “I - I have no idea what’s going on right now. It felt like my whole body went to sleep, and...I...”

“Are you Brigitte?” Hana wrestled herself out of Satya’s grip and leaned over the edge of her hide. “Or Moira?”

Moira shook her head slowly. “I don’t know.”

“Hana,” Satya said, a bit softer this time, “I may be able to separate their souls. I am more adept at joining than the reverse, but for you I would certainly try.”

“But is her soul still in one piece? Moira basically ate it.”

“I do not know.”

“I’m...Hana, I...” Moira gritted her sharp teeth. “I feel like my brain has another brain inside of it...”

“I know how that feels.” Hana frowned down at her. “I felt that way most of my life.”

“Because of Deathwing...” Moira clambered to her feet then. “We need to find Amélie. She could be in danger.”

It was clear Moira’s intentions were blending with Brigitte’s emotions, much like when Hana and Deathwing had been one and the same. “I think we should be worrying about Brigitte before we worry about a girl who can clearly protect herself, but–”

Moira climbed up the side of Satya’s hide and dissolved herself into Brigitte’s soulless vessel. The body absorbed her easily through the pores all over its skin. Hana watched in horror as the reanimated body sat up, blinked a few times, and then shrugged. “Now you won’t have to worry about lugging Brigitte’s body around.”

“I don’t like you in there. It’s gross.”

“Really? You married this body.”

“I don’t mean the _body_ is gross.” Hana rolled her eyes.

“Well Moira doesn’t have a functional digestive system. How am I supposed to eat pancakes otherwise?” Her tiny smile was so familiar that it was almost reassuring, even in the midst of all the strangeness. Hana sighed.

“That sounds like Brigitte. How can I tell which one of you is in charge at any given time?”

“That isn’t how soul-bonding works,” Satya said. “Surely you remember that with Deathwing’s soul within your body you were neither yourself nor him, but a mixture of the two.”

“Right.” She remembered it all too well. There was no clear distinction between herself and Deathwing back then – when the witch had removed Deathwing from her body, it had felt like losing a piece of herself. “So this _is_ Brigitte now.”

“Until I can separate them. _If_ I can separate them.”

Apparently through waiting around for them to finish their conversation, Sombra had already stormed off in pursuit of Amélie. It wasn’t difficult to trace her gigantic footsteps, especially since wherever she went she left a massive hole in the underbrush.

“This is so strange,” Brigitte murmured as they followed Sombra’s tracks. “I can remember everything from Brigitte’s life, but also everything from Moira’s. And Moira’s life was...bizarre.”

“Deathwing was long dead when we were merged together. I can’t imagine how weird it must feel to be merged with a creature that was alive at the same time as you.”

“There are memories of things that happened while we were both there that I can remember from both sides.” Brigitte rubbed her head. “I can also remember everything that transpired while we were asleep all those years. All the experiments they did on living creatures...”

“Amélie too?”

She nodded. “We were both involved. She was my protégé.”

With her young, innocent-looking face it was easy to forget Amélie had been complicit in the same horrific acts Moira had involved herself in. She didn’t seem sorry for them, either – she had only revived Hana and her family because she was lonely.

Hana exhaled. “What are we supposed to do with them? They just...coagulated into existence one day and now the world is supposed to just suffer whatever they want it to suffer from?”

Brigitte lowered her head. After a long silence she said, “Moira had a son.”

The statement, although simple, stunned Hana. “What? She did?”

“Apparently. Moira doesn’t remember him, though. He confronted her after she and Amélie destroyed the facility they were being held in. He was a scientist there, and he told her he had always wanted to follow in his mother’s footsteps. I guess she used to be some really esteemed scientist, too. She and Amélie found medical records in their lab outlining their lives before they were...made, or cloned, or whatever, that mentioned she’d been diagnosed with some sort of early-onset dementia, I guess? In her forties. Her son said...”

She trailed off, clenching and unclenching her fingers. Hana reached over and rested a hand on Brigitte’s shoulder. Brigitte simply stared downward. When next she spoke, her tone had changed. “He said he wanted to learn everything from me, but I couldn’t teach him anymore. By the end of things I was little better than a child. He was desperate to preserve my prodigious brain, so he did what any rational scientist, especially my own kin, would do. He attempted to re-make me.”

“Whoa.” Despite living a human life now, Hana still had very limited knowledge of what humanity was capable of. She certainly didn’t realize they could recreate humans after death. “But Moira doesn’t remember any of this?”

Brigitte squinted, as if focusing hard on capturing the answer to that question. “I’m not sure what she remembers and what was told to her by her son. All I can tell is that it left her feeling confused and even more desperate for answers than she’d already been. Amélie was still barely a solid-bodied entity, and her ability to walk was lacking, so Moira took the girl up on her back and did what any cold creature of science would do – she drained the life out of the man before her and took off with the only child she had any memory of.”

“She killed her son?”

“I guess so.”

“Jesus.”

“Maybe we can lighten up this horrific conversation a little bit?” Fareeha spoke up from her spot by Satya’s head. “Maybe we can talk about, uh...” She scratched her chin, then eventually conceded. “...I got nothing.”

“How does a mother forget her own child?” Satya angled her neck backward to engage the creatures on her back. “Is it some sort of curse?”

“No, it’s a disease.” Brigitte combed her fingers through her hair, almost as if trying to soothe herself. Hana could hardly blame her – Deathwing's memories were always horrible to relive. It felt weird knowing Moira was inside Brigitte, or Brigitte was inside Moira, or both, but Hana ignored the weirdness as she leaned in and gave Brigitte a soft kiss.

“Guh-” Brigitte pulled back. “I’m unaccustomed to this. I don’t think I particularly want it, either.” With an open palm she pushed Hana’s face away. “Let us focus on finding Amélie.”

Hana sighed as she watched her wife, now only half her wife, scan the horizon with those cold, searching eyes. As she stared Hana could think only of Brigitte’s complaint from just a few days before, that everything was too perfect and almost boring. That nothing bad ever happened to them.

She’d gladly take that life over this.

* * *

 

Phantom memories haunted Brigitte. The terrifying creature of science that had merged itself with her had a mind like a collapsing building, full of dark, twisting tunnels and pitfalls into the abyss. She kept experiencing the sensation of being trapped in a glass tank filled entirely with fluid, only able to see the world distorted through a pane of curved, shatter-proof glass. Her mind was racing constantly, searching for answers to this frightening and confusing situation, but her memories were vague and full of holes. 

She recalled the face of a young man with auburn hair and sharp, harsh features staring in at her, speaking words she could not understand through the thick glass.

The memories that came after that were violent. She had broken right through that pathetic glass, and her attempts to garner information had shown her that she could apparently drain the life out of human beings to add to her own life force. Try as she might, however, she could not seem to absorb their knowledge – and they used that to their advantage. It wasn’t long before the powerful but naïve experiment was chained up, outfitted with a heavy metal face mask to limit her sensory intake of the world, and placed in an even stronger tank to hold her. With no external stimuli Moira began to focus on refining her mental powers instead. She learned to pick up on the delicate vibrations of the psychic world, all of the unseen and unheard information passing through the universe at any and all times.

One day she heard a weak voice crying out. It was childlike in nature, and it stirred something deep inside of her. She could not remember where she had heard such crying before, but she wanted to end it. She wanted to bring peace to it. Her mind had stretched its psychic fingers out and it began trying to find the source of the crying. It did not take long to locate it. A human-shaped slime was outside her tank, radiating a mixture of curiosity and loneliness. Moira could relate. And that was apparently the start of their odd companionship.

It was strange knowing another creature so inside and out – better than Brigitte even knew her own wife. Likewise, it was more than a little disturbing knowing that a creature like Moira knew every minute detail about her. _Was this what Hana was dealing with her whole life?_ No wonder she’d been troubled.

Speaking of Hana, Brigitte beheld her with a hybrid mix of love and contempt. Brigitte, of course, adored her. Moira had nothing but resentment for a creature that would foolishly give up all of its power for love.

All of her reactions to situations, she was finding, were different now. She was still upset about the potential loss of her family, but there was also a morbid sense of curiosity woven in there. She wanted to know what happened to them, and also how they would have reacted to it – emotionally, psychologically, physically...

“Can you stop being weird for like one second?”

The moment she blurted that Hana immediately looked over at her. “What?”

“Um, not you. Sorry.” Brigitte stared at her for a long time, then said, “Is it...is it normal to want to perform a skin scraping to see if you still have any reptilian scale cells in your epidermis?”

Hana grimaced. “Uh...not really, no.”

“Right. It’s not normal to want that.” Brigitte rubbed her forearms and exhaled. “This is going to take a lot of getting used to.”

They found Amélie and Hanzo on the far edge of his territory. They were not fighting, but were instead both sitting on a high stone wall, gazing up at the cloudy sky. The group hung back, save for Brigitte, who edged closer to them.

“Even if I wanted to, I do not know how to bring her here.” Hanzo’s voice was loud enough to be heard from a distance. “And she has her own world to concern herself with.”

“I can travel between worlds. The laws of physics are not something I tend to follow very closely.”

“I would not trust you with the knowledge of her whereabouts.”

Amélie turned to the rest of her group, apparently fully aware they were listening in. “We do not have many options if you wish to see this world restored, Hanzo.”

His tail flicked. “I care little about it.”

“Well perhaps you should care more, considering this is your home.”

He huffed. “’Home’ means nothing to me.”

“Tell us where to go and we will find this other dragon.” Brigitte stepped forward, rising to her full height. It wasn’t quite as tall as Moira had been, but what Brigitte lacked in height she made up for in muscle. She knew nothing of the dragon Amélie and Hanzo spoke of. All the times Amélie had been off cavorting with the creatures of this world Moira had thought it foolish. Maybe there had been more to learn from that than she’d thought.

“Absolutely not.” Hanzo’s icy breath seeped from his nose and mouth.

“Why?” Brigitte contested. “If you truly don’t care about this world then why would you care if we tarnish it further?”

Hanzo’s tail drifted back and forth in the air. “I am not a fool.” His eyes narrowed as he spoke, and he refused to even look at Brigitte. “I may not care for it, but if I let you sink this world any deeper into chaos I will have nowhere to live.”

“I can give you my word that we won’t lay any more waste to this world.” She wasn’t sure whose word she was giving, but she did feel confident it was the truth. In fact, the more she peered into Moira’s heart the more she was starting to see that Moira wasn’t necessarily a deceptive or evil creature. Selfish, chaotic and careless, certainly. But deep inside, whether Moira herself was aware of it or not, she had a human heart. It was just a very weak one.

“We have learned all we can from this world anyway,” Amélie said. “There is nothing more to gain from destroying it.”

“Yes, so perhaps its only remaining value is in rebuilding it.”

Hanzo eyed them both. “Were you to attempt your ‘experiments’ in this other world you would be slaughtered. Instantly.”

“And I am telling you, dragon, that I would not attempt them. I am not willing to jeopardize Amélie’s safety in any way.” Her voice dropped an octave. “I’ve already lost her as it is.”

Amélie tilted her head as she glanced over at them.

“I’ll go wherever it takes.” Brigitte stepped forward, clenching a fist. “As a Crusader I swore myself to protecting the innocent. You may not trust Moira, but you can trust me.”

“Brig, you can’t just go dimension-hopping. It’s dangerous!” As always, Hana’s soft brown eyes were filled with concern. Brigitte’s heart clenched at the sight. Despite Moira’s protests Brigitte reached out and took Hana’s hand.

“It’s okay. I’ve been through more dangerous things.” A tiny smirk crept up her lips. “Like, you know, confronting a big, scary dragon.”

In spite of her visible worry, Hana smiled at the joke. “I wasn’t _that_ scary.”

“You ate my pie! I was traumatized!”

“Really? I thought you liked it when I ate your pi–” As soon as the words were out of her mouth her cheeks flushed. “...I keep forgetting you’re not alone in there. Awkward.”

Moira didn’t seem to understand the double entendre at first. Brigitte did, however, and so Moira learned it from her. _Great. She has access to all of my sexual memories, too._ She hadn’t even thought of that before. Moira had been human once, but the thought of her in any sort of sexual context made Brigitte retch. It apparently made Moira herself retch too, for a thought crossed Brigitte’s mind about ‘ascending beyond the prison of organic creatures’ obsession with mating’. _Oh, be quiet. You’re no better than us just because you’re a virgin._

Amélie was already trying to tear a hole in the air a stretch away from them. Powerful as she was, her skills still demonstrated room for improvement. Moira came up beside her and used her own psychic power to help Amélie hold the portal open. “Thank you,” Amélie murmured.

“So who’s going on this crazy journey?” Sombra stepped forward. “Because there's no way I'm gonna fit in that dinky little whatever-it-is you’re opening up.”

“I assumed it would just be myself and Moira,” Amélie said.

“And Brigitte,” Brigitte said. “Unless our good Summoner would like to attempt a separation right now.”

“I want to see Mom do a black magic ritual,” Hemakshi spoke up. The other siblings all started talking at once.

“Yeah, Mom, do some black magic!”

“I want to learn how you do it!”

“Ritual! Ritual! Ritual!”

“What kind of kids are you raising?” Sombra whispered to Fareeha. Fareeha simply sighed.

“There will be no black magic in my kingdom.” Hanzo stepped between the kids and Satya and bared his teeth at them. “You will perform your dark arts outside the boundaries of my land.”

“Fair enough.” Satya gathered the children around her. “I will attempt an un-joining outside this dragon’s territory. Follow me, Brigitte.”

Brigitte looked at Amélie. With a shrug, Amélie released her hold on the rift they’d managed to tear in reality. Moira’s knowledge allowed Brigitte to close it up, although time would never quite flow correctly there again.

Hanzo followed close behind them as they migrated away from the Land of the South Wind.


	4. A Place Beyond the Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got the inspiration to pick this fic back up again! It's actually been most of the way done for a while now, I just needed to proofread and edit it. Now here we are!
> 
> For context in this chapter, you may want to check out [this trailer.](https://youtu.be/XQV2MLHFYFg) D.Va the Destroyer is from Heroes of the Storm after all, so right along I've wanted to bring in some more from that series!

The last time Satya had performed a forbidden ritual Hana was far too young to remember it. That ritual was, of course, the conjuring of Deathwing’s spirit and his subsequent sealing into Hana’s infant body. Now, all these years later, Hana could finally bear witness to the act that earned The Summoner her name.

Satya carved an intricate design into the dirt with her claws, and breathed flame over a pile of freshly-plucked greenery. It sizzled as the life was sucked out of it by the heat of her draconic fire. Once the center of the carving was alight Satya assumed her humanoid form and performed a series of graceful, arcane movements. The flames danced with her, moving independent of the wind around them. From deep in her throat she seethed out a growl. The fire sparked and rose higher as she teased it with her claws.

“What’s the fire for?” Brigitte whispered to Hana.

“Um, well with my ritual I know she burned me all over to harden my skin. I don’t know if–”

“She’s gonna burn us?” Brigitte recoiled. “I think I’d rather just live with Moira than be thrown into a pit of fire...”

Satya’s eyes glowed a solid orange as she murmured an incantation under her breath. The carved design blazed to life, and shadows began to creep across the ground to gather around it. Hana lifted a foot as one shadow slithered right under her to join the rest.

Satya reached slowly outward and pointed a claw at Brigitte. “Come to me.” Her voice echoed with raw power. Brigitte stepped hesitantly forward.

“This all seems a tad unnecessary,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “I’m quite content in this body. Really!”

“Stand upon the sigil I have created.” She pointed her claw downward then. With visible hesitation Brigitte meandered into the blazing symbol. To Hana’s surprise, the fire parted around Brigitte, allowing her unimpeded entrance. As soon as she passed into it, the flames leapt back up, preventing anyone else from following her inside.

“You really don’t have to do this.” Brigitte’s voice was nearly lost amidst the fire’s crackle. “Seriously, we’ll learn to live together–”

Satya’s clawed hand punched clean through the wall of flame. Her nails pressed into Brigitte’s chest, still raw from the earlier wound.

“Only one soul may occupy this body.” She pushed until the flesh carved away and began to bleed. Brigitte cried out in pain. It took everything Hana had not to leap into the circle and pull her wife to safety. “Moira, you must surrender it to its true owner.”

Flames began to lick up Satya’s arm and coil around her fingers. Brigitte hissed as the fire found her skin and worked its way inside the claw wounds. “You’re gonna kill her!” Hana couldn’t help shouting. “Please, be careful Satya!”

Satya’s focus remained only on the ritual. “Leave this body at once.”

Brigitte was gasping from the heat. Sweat dripped from her face. Hana realized the sweat was purple in color.

Satya twisted her claws, then yanked her arm back. A strand of thick, gooey purple stretched from Brigitte’s chest out to Satya’s fingertips. “Do not be stubborn. This is not your body.”

Amélie was watching the ritual from afar. Though her arms were folded in a look of apathy, she was focused intently on what was going on.

The purple goo began to leak out of the wound and onto the charred ground. Satya parted the flames to allow it to slither out, away from Brigitte. With her free hand she sank her claws into the goo and stretched it upward. The fire dried it out on contact, forming it into a vague human-shape. That assisted the goo in regaining its old form – soon two different-colored eyes were staring out at her. Next came the rest of her features, then her hands and feet, and finally her entire body managed to take its familiar shape.

Moira cracked her wet-sounding joints as she sighed with relief. “I’d forgotten just how _constricting_ a physics-compliant body is.” She turned back to Brigitte, and the two of them eyed each other for a few moments. “...I apologize for the complication,” Moira said.

“Yeah, well...” The fire began to die around Brigitte, freeing her from the circle. “Don’t do it again.”

Moira gave her an exaggerated bow. When she came back up, she was smirking.

Satya extinguished the fire and scuffed out the sigil, leaving no trace of the ritual behind. Well, no physical trace, at least. Hana’s own experiences with the phenomenon told her its effects would linger in Brigitte’s body for a long time yet.

Hana hadn’t even heard Amélie approach, but then she was suddenly at Moira’s side. Moira’s smirk dissipated.

“You could have just said you wanted to stay,” Amélie said.

“You didn’t want me here. But I couldn’t very well just abandon you.”

“I never said I didn’t want you here. _You_ thought that.”

“Well...” Moira crossed her bony arms and turned partially away. “Why would you want a boring old woman with you when you could be with these... _upstanding_ young creatures?”

“’Boring’? _You?_ ” Amélie snickered. “That is about the last word I would use.”

Moira’s usually cold eyes warmed just a little. With her long, spindly fingers she reached out and tousled Amélie’s hair.

Satya tended to Brigitte as the last of the embers died around her. Hana was beside her as well, looking her over. The sight of her wife’s eyes so clear and full of her own life energy made Hana’s heart flutter. “I was so worried,” she whispered as she nuzzled Brigitte’s cheek with her own. Brigitte cupped her face in her hands and gave her a slow, gentle kiss.

“Love you, Hana.”

“I love you, too!” It took everything Hana had not to burst into tears as the gravity of what had happened hit her all at once. “I was worried you’d never be yourself again.”

“I mean, I definitely still feel different.” Brigitte gave a little shrug. “I can’t believe you dealt with this for nineteen years.”

“I basically just lost myself in it. I didn’t think I had any humanity left inside me until I met you.”

They clasped their hands together. Brigitte gave Hana another kiss, this time on the forehead. Hana nestled her face into the nape of Brigitte’s neck and gave a little, contented sigh.

“Tender moment aside, your world is still in shambles.” Moira’s voice cut through the sweetness of the moment.” So shall we attempt to find this dragoness, then? Amélie and I?”

“And me.” Brigitte parted gently from Hana. “Someone needs to make sure this mission stays on course.”

“Then I’ll be going, too.” Hana nodded firmly, already anticipating a protest from Brigitte.

As expected, Brigitte shook her head. “No you won’t.”

Hana scowled. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, because you don’t know a thing about interdimensional travel.”

“Neither do you!” Brigitte’s stare gave her a few seconds to think over what she was saying, which resulted in a realization on Hana’s part. “...Oh yeah. You do.”

“Young Brigitte is my second disciple now.” Moira’s emaciated arm coiled around Brigitte’s broad shoulders. “She and I understand one another.”

“Unfortunately,” Brigitte muttered.

“You should remain here anyway, Hana.” Satya had returned to her native dragon form. “The more creatures traipsing through foreign dimensions, the more likely they are to attract hostile attention.”

“True, I guess.” Regardless, Hana frowned as Brigitte joined up with Moira and Amélie. She definitely _was_ different now. The contrast made Hana wonder how different she herself would have been without Deathwing’s influence.

As Hana was thinking about all of that, Brigitte turned back to her and gave her a dorky little finger wave. Hana smiled in spite of herself. _I guess she’s not_ that _different._

“All right, let’s get to it, then.” Moira led Amélie and Brigitte over to an open spot where, presumably, they would open their dimensional rift. Hana sighed as she watched them go.

* * *

 

Brigitte felt better about leaving most of their group behind once she knew Hana would be there to look out for them. She knew Hana would volunteer to accompany the three of them to this mysterious other world, and she was determined not to let that happen. Hana deserved to be safe. And besides, she didn’t understand the two oddballs they’d be traveling with like Brigitte unfortunately did.

“I’m finding myself a tad excited for this journey,” Moira said as she and Amélie tore apart the very fabric of this world’s reality. “We can show Miss Lindholm everything we went through to get here.”

“Can’t wait.” Brigitte was keeping an eye on Hana, who was just barely containing her displeasure at being left behind. “I hope everyone here is fine while we’re gone.”

“What’s going to happen? Is that oversized serpent going to nip at their ankles again?”

It was true, really, that there were not many threats left in this world. The realest danger was where they themselves were headed.

Sombra was sitting on her haunches sweeping her tail across the forest floor, watching them as well. As much as she pretended not to, Brigitte knew Sombra cared about Amélie, and about her, too. The jury was still out on how anyone felt about Moira at this point, but two out of three was apparently enough to keep the dragoness lingering around, occasionally making comments to the extent of “Don’t go and get yourselves killed, okay?”

When the dimensional rift was opened, it created a strange sensation nearby it. It felt like air was being pulled in, then pushed right back out in pulses. There was a total absence of sound close to it, such a deafening silence that it almost hurt the ears to listen to. It was disorienting. As Brigitte stood near it, she found herself wondering how she’d survive traveling surrounded by this strange aura.

Moira must still have been able to read her emotions to an extent, for she locked right on to Brigitte’s uncertainty. “Feeling nervous, Miss Lindholm?” Her long, pointed feet were hovering above the ground as she studied Brigitte, wearing that usual punch-able grin. “Surely this isn’t as frightening as being seduced by a dragon.”

“I’d be fine if it wasn’t for you two coming along.”

“Really? And here I thought you had warmed up to me, from what I could feel in your emotions.”

“I feel _sorry_ for you. There’s a difference there.”

That gave Moira pause. “Why on earth would you feel ‘sorry’ for me? I’m an advanced life form, light years beyond your restricted human experience.”

“I feel sorry for you that you can’t remember your family or loved ones. That you were an innocent human that got mixed up in experimental genetic engineering, brought back to life and turned into an unstable...thing without your consent.”

Moira crossed her arms. “I would have consented.”

“But you didn’t get the choice. And that’s why I feel sorry for you.”

For once Moira did not have a sarcastic comeback. Her eyes searched Brigitte’s for a moment, but then she returned to Amélie’s side.

“Brigitte.” Brigitte turned to find Satya approaching her. Though the woman’s tone was sharp, her eyes were soft as usual. “Do be careful, my dear. You know I regard you like my own. Were something to happen to you, Hana and I both would be devastated.”

“I’ll be careful, Satya. Don’t worry.” Brigitte hugged her thick dragon neck. Satya gave her a lick on the face. “See you when I get back!”

She gave Hana one last goodbye kiss before following Amélie and Moira into the unknown.

* * *

 

The space between worlds was a pitch-black vacuum of no sound, no texture, no scent. In the distance there were thousands, maybe millions, of twinkling lights, like stars. “Those are other worlds,” Moira had explained as they drifted through the nothingness. “Every little speck of light you see out there is a universe the size of your own. And there is, or was, some variation of you in every one of them.”

Brigitte drew near to one of the twinkles of light. The moment she came too close, it exploded in a dazzling light. When the light finally faded, they were all somewhere completely different.

“Should have warned you not to touch anything,” Moira muttered.

They were sitting on a high stone wall – well, Brigitte was sitting. Amélie was leaning against it. Moira was crouched like a gargoyle on the ledge. The sky was dark but full of stars, and in the distance they could see what appeared to be a village made of little lopsided buildings.

“How will we know what the right world is? Where the dragoness is?”

“I will know,” Amélie said. “This is not it.”

Just outside the village an armored knight was standing guard. “It looks like our world,” Brigitte said. “Well, _my_ world.”

“Sometimes there are only subtle differences between them.” Moira hopped down from the wall, landing in the grass with barely a sound. “Big or small, those differences are always interesting to see.”

“Do you think they’re guarding against dragons here, too?” Brigitte followed Moira’s lead, daring to get a little closer to the guard’s line of sight.

A sudden flutter of wings drew their attention. A creature landed in the underbrush behind them. Immediately Moira stepped in front of Amélie and Brigitte, her purple hand glowing menacingly.

Whatever was in the bushes seemed to have no interest in them. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the creature emerged, and was then followed by another. Brigitte had to blink several times to believe what she was seeing, but it was undeniable.

A young woman with greyish-brown skin tucked her wings in through two slits in the back of her dress. She then held out a clawed hand to a child with pale, grey-tinged skin who was walking very unsteadily. The girl took the woman’s hand, and they began hurrying down the dirt road toward the knight-guard.

“What kind of creature was _that?_ ” Brigitte whispered.

“Observe and we will find out.” Moira crept closer, eyes alight with that typical curiosity of hers.

“You must help us!” As soon as the woman cried out to the guard Brigitte stopped dead. _That voice..._

The knight lifted their helmet to observe the woman. Brigitte gasped. She heard Moira chuckle behind her.

It was...herself. With a few extra battle scars on her face, sure, but it was absolutely, undeniably this universe’s equivalent of Brigitte Lindholm.

“What’s the matter?” the knight asked, her focus immediately falling to the limping child at the woman’s side.

“We were attacked by bandits.” The more the woman spoke, the more Brigitte became convinced it was exactly who she thought it was.

“That’s Satya,” she whispered. “I’d know that voice anywhere.”

“So the child must be Hana,” Amélie said.

She was right. The little girl had long, wavy brown hair and a face with perfect little, round features, and her eyes held that same devious gleam Brigitte had come to know inside and out.

The knight crouched down to the girl’s level. “Are you hurt?” she asked.

The little girl nodded.

“I’ll get you to our medic. She can...”

The other-Brigitte looked up at Satya, and her posture slackened. Satya seemed to be exerting some sort of control over her. She beckoned the knight to follow them into the forest. The knight stumbled after them, in a fog.

“Interesting...” Moira’s lips formed that malevolent grin she wore whenever she was learning some dark new information.

Satya “helped” the girl partially out of her armor, exposing her neck and throat. As soon as they were out of sight of the road Satya leaned in and bit down on her neck. She then laid the girl down on the grass and guided Hana to the bite. They both hungrily gulped down the girl’s fresh blood.

“No way.” Brigitte retreated further away from the pair. “Vampires?”

The question came louder than she intended. The two vampiresses stopped what they were doing and looked up.

“Good job,” Amélie mumbled.

Satya stalked toward them, fangs still soaked with blood. “It’s probably time to go.” Moira tore open another rift and pulled Amélie and Brigitte through. They managed to close it just as the vampiress was pouncing at them claws-first.

“Oh my God.” Brigitte clutched her heart as she attempted to catch her breath. “So in another universe Satya and Hana are vampires? And they drank my blood?”

“I told you, there are an infinite amount of other universes existing alongside your own. Every possibility that could be, is.”

Brigitte let herself just drift for a bit after that, observing all the tiny twinkles in the distance. It was certainly humbling, to say the least. Since Moira had merged with her it must have rewired her brain in some ways, for she was filled with a thirst for knowledge she’d never had before.

“...I kind of want to see all these worlds,” she murmured.

Moira appeared before her. “You too?” Her eyes were glowing in the low light.

Brigitte hesitated. _I shouldn’t...we’re supposed to be on a mission._

“We do not know what universe the dragoness is in right now, anyway,” Amélie said, “so we will have to explore multiple worlds as it is.”

“That’s true!” Moira grabbed Brigitte’s arm. “Come, explore with us, Brigitte! Expand your tiny world.”

Moira and Amélie both hovered in front of her, awaiting an answer. Brigitte’s brows furrowed as she looked around at all the undiscovered knowledge awaiting her.

_There really isn’t any danger back in our world...everything is just a wasteland. And we have to explore these worlds anyway..._

“We’ll explore until we find the dragoness,” Brigitte decided. “Then we _have_ to get back to Hana and the others.”

“Oh of course, of course!” Moira was already leading her to another wormhole. “What do you suppose this one contains, my dears?”

“A universe where everyone has eight legs, like a spider,” Amélie guessed.

“Um...a universe where everyone is happy and there’s no, like, war. Or anything.”

Moira sneered. “Aiming for a Nobel Prize?”

Amélie was the first one through the rift into the second other world. Brigitte followed her, and Moira went last.

This wormhole opened into a small room with dark green walls and cherrywood furniture, lit by a single desk lamp. They appeared behind a small, sleek sofa, which thankfully gave them time to assess their surroundings while hidden.

They heard the light drag of chair legs on a carpet. Brigitte peered around the sofa. Then she sharply nudged Moira, who, along with Amélie, squeezed their malleable bodies under the sofa to observe.

A woman sat at the desk, her face buried in her hands. She wore a white lab coat, and her hair was a short, choppy orange, though it sagged as her fingers tugged at the skin of her temples. Although her face was not visible, her identity was unmistakable.

A door opened, casting brief light into the dim room. It took the light back with it when it closed.

The doctor lifted her head from her hands. Her eyes had heavy bags beneath them. To say she looked unwell was an understatement.

“Ms. Lacroix, I am so sorry.”

Brigitte caught brief sight of a woman with long dark hair and piercing dark eyes as she pulled out the chair opposite the doctor and sat down, folding one long, spidery leg over the other. Moments later a man appeared behind her and sat down in the other chair facing down the doctor.

“We were told you were an expert at treating rare diseases,” the woman said. Her voice was low, and had a thick French accent. “We brought her all the way to Dublin for a chance at life.”

“And I was confident it would be just like any other surgery I’ve performed. Unfortunately medicine is not an exact science, and–”

“’ _Unfortunately’,_ ” the woman snarled. “’Unfortunately’ you botched her surgery and killed her. You killed our daughter, Dr. O’Deorain.”

Brigitte pulled back to glance down at Moira and Amélie. They were still hidden from her sight under the furniture.

“I’m aware of that.” Dr. O’Deorain clenched her fingers on the surface of her desk. “It wasn’t my intention–”

“Well, I would certainly hope not.” The woman stood up, and rested her fingertips, neatly manicured and painted, on the doctor’s desk. “And we expect you to fix this.”

“’Fix’ it?” The doctor straightened up. “Ms. LaCroix, I can’t _fix_ –”

“Dr. O’Deorain, we have done our research. We know of the projects you have been undertaking.” The woman sat back down, exchanged a glance with the man beside her, and then said, “We want you to bring her back.”

 _What is this lady talking about?_ Brigitte looked from the woman to the doctor and back again. _How could she bring back..._

The doctor steepled her fingers. Her bony shoulders quivered as she exhaled deeply.

“That research is still in its infancy, Ms. LaCroix. The results thus far have been extremely unstable – they’re just...messes of chemicals and goop.”

“We can fund you. The cost is irrelevant.”

The doctor’s eyes flicked between the man and the woman. After a few moments she lowered her chin slightly and said in a low voice, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you. We will be in touch.” The couple got up from the desk, led by the woman, who marched off with the utmost confidence.

The doctor leaned forward, burying her face in her hands once again. “I’m losing my mind,” she whispered.

“Indeed you are.”

The doctor’s head snapped up at Moira’s voice. Moira had materialized from under the couch, her low-elasticity skin still reforming and smoothing out its abundance of slack.

“Wha...” The doctor jumped out of her seat, the color draining from her face. “What is this?”

“This universe, in this regard, is identical to the one I called home.” Moira sat herself down on the doctor’s desk and examined her claws. “At least from what I remember of it. It’s all a bit of a fog, you see.”

The doctor cried out as Amélie appeared at Moira’s side. “It - it’s you...” The doctor backed up against the far wall. “Amélie LaCroix...”

Amélie studied her with those empty yellow eyes. “You killed me.”

The doctor reached out with a shaking hand. Her fingers brushed the side of Amélie’s face, rough and covered in mottled purple scales. “How is this possible? I haven’t even started the project yet...”

“Ah, but _I_ did.” Moira slithered over to the doctor’s side. “You see, I’m you from a slightly-different but overall _very_ similar universe. I don’t remember any of this, but it certainly matches the records we found in the lab before we escaped.”

“I...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The doctor’s eyes darted between the two of them. “This can’t be real...my mind is playing tricks on me again...”

“If the records are to be believed, then you’ll soon forget all of this nonsense anyway.” Moira patted her on the shoulder. “So tell me, Dr. O’Deorain, what happened?”

The doctor looked her over, her eyes wide but full of that same curiosity as Moira. “You behave like my experiments. A more stable version, but remarkably similar.” Her gaze then settled on Amélie. “I’ve performed this surgery a thousand times before. There’s no reason I should have forgotten what to do.”

“You forgot?” Amélie’s tone was devoid of emotion, as she had been when Brigitte had first met her.

“I don’t know how you’re here, child.” The doctor reached out and touched her again. “My team trusted me at the surgical helm. Your parents trusted me. They put your life in my hands...and I failed them.”

“I would hardly say you _failed_ , Doctor.” Moira curled her fingers around the handle of a drawer at the doctor’s desk and pulled it open. Inside she found a stack of papers, which she began skimming through. “Mental decay is truly fascinating. I once held all of this knowledge...I suppose I should have known the only thing that could stop me was the limitation of my own mind.”

“I don’t know how you exist. I don’t even know if you _do_ exist.” The doctor grasped her hair in her clenched fists, keeping her head low. “What’s happening to me?”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. You won’t remember this anyway.” With a cackle Moira ribbed her in the side, then drifted back over to the sofa Brigitte was crouching behind. She clapped her hands twice. “Come now, my young protégés. I think it’s time for us to move on.”

“Wait! I want to know more!” The doctor shot up from her desk and grabbed Moira by her shirt collar. “Am I truly losing my mind?”

Moira picked her hands off with two fingers. “How do you expect me to help? I’ve forgotten everything from my life before.” Her smile flickered a moment as a look crossed her face. Then, in a low tone, she added, “Doctor, do you...have a son?”

“Yes.” Her eyes were round as she studied Moira. “Why? What do you want with him?”

“Does he take after you? Does he want to be a doctor, just like his mother?”

Dr. O’Deorain gave a small nod.

Moira’s feet settled on the floor. She looked to Amélie then. Amélie simply looked back at her.

“I don’t want anything with him,” Moira said. “I was just curious.” She took Amélie by the hand and led her over to the door. “Brigitte.”

The Doctor let out a little shriek as Brigitte emerged from behind the sofa. “How many of you are in here??”

“Just the three of us, ma’am.” Brigitte joined them as Moira was opening the door. It was clear as could be that the Doctor still had questions, but Moira did not have answers. The Doctor called after them, even following them out into the hall, but they did not acknowledge her. When Moira tore open a rift and they climbed through it, they could still hear the Doctor’s voice until the rift was completely sealed.

Moira was uncharacteristically quiet as they wandered the nothingness after that. Instead it was Amélie who spoke to Brigitte.

“Humans don’t normally do things like this,” she said at one point.

“Yes, I know that,” Brigitte replied.

They drifted for a bit in silence. Then Amélie continued, “I don’t remember much of my human life. I remember feeling very sick all the time.”

“Well that makes sense, if you had some rare disease.”

“I didn’t enjoy it very much. I saw so many doctors. They frightened me greatly.”

“I can imagine.”

As Brigitte followed behind them, she couldn’t help but think about all she had gleaned from the two creatures accompanying her. They had laid waste to her world, yet she couldn’t find it in her heart to completely resent them. Amélie was just a sickly child, and Moira the byproduct of a son trying to keep his mother’s dementia-riddled brain alive by any means necessary. Of course they were still responsible for their actions, but...

Amélie gave pause outside of a glowing blue wormhole. “This feels right,” she said.

“The dragoness is in there?”

Amélie reached through. Moira followed her. With a sigh, Brigitte stepped through as well.

Instead of footing, she found only air. It was too late to hang on to anything by the time she stepped through, and so she fell, screaming, out of the sky.

She was bracing to hit the ground when she instead hit something rough, but clearly not dirt or rock. Once her vision stopped spinning, she realized she was on the back of Amélie’s dragon form. They were gliding downward from an impossible height – down below, certainly far enough to have killed Brigitte had she not been caught mid-air, the land was lush and green, with odd but beautiful, castle-like towers dotting the landscape. There were mountains in the far distance, and a river cut through the middle of the greenery at their feet. Past their peaks, beyond the clouds, there were a dozen purple wormholes gaping wide open in the sky, revealing other worlds within them.

“What is this place...?” Brigitte’s head whipped back and forth as she tried to take in all of the bizarre sights before they landed. Moira was sitting on the back of Amélie’s neck, as captivated by the new world as Brigitte.

“It’s called the Nexus,” Amélie said. She angled a wing to swing downward, taking them toward one of the fantastical castles situated in the mountainside. “There are many different creatures who come and go through here.”

Down below Brigitte could see swaths of humans in armor moving forward in a vague formation. They seemed to be heading toward one of the towers. Guarding the tower, she realized as they were winging past it, was some sort of ogre-like giant.

“This is where that dragoness lives?” Brigitte asked.

“How did you even find this place, Amélie?” Moira twisted her spine to lean down and meet Amélie’s gaze.

Amélie huffed a bit of smog from her nostrils. “I was bored one time.”

They landed at the castle’s entrance, with all the grace of a dragon who had only recently learned how to fly. The sudden stop flung both Moira and Brigitte off Amélie’s back. They crashed up against the door, Moira splatting against the wood like one of those sticky hands Brigitte used to hit her siblings with.

"For Christ’s sake, Amélie.” She straightened herself up and readjusted her jarred limbs. “Perhaps warn us next time?”

Brigitte took a few steps back to take in the whole castle. “A dragon living in a castle...that’s kind of funny.”

“Oh, she does not live in the castle.” Amélie straightened up to her full draconic height as she strode up to the ledge. “I just needed a good high point.”

“For...?”

Throwing back her head, the dragon girl unleashed a roar loud enough to shake the stone underfoot. Instantly Brigitte was transported back to years ago, the first time she’d heard Hana roar. It had sounded _exactly_ like that. _Same soul, I guess._

The humans below all stopped in their tracks. Their little heads lifted at the sound, and they beheld the dragon with open mouths and wild hand gestures.

It didn’t take long for one human to part the crowd and emerge, gazing up at Amélie’s mighty form. Clad in scarlet and gold, she had wild red hair masked beneath a crown-like helmet with four massive black horns curled backward on either side. Her eyes glowed a warm gold as they fixed upon the three newcomers to this dimension.

“I never believed I would hear that again.” Her voice was clear and powerful enough to carry all the way up to them when she spoke. “I should have known you would find a way back.”

“Who’s this lady?” Brigitte whispered, although she already had a feeling.

Amélie descended the mountain forepaws-first, sliding down like a cat. She landed with a _thunk_ in the dirt at the base of the mountain. The other humans all began shouting, and suddenly there was no formation anymore. They scattered every which way, and as they fled Brigitte could hear one name cried out loud and clear.

The woman spoke a different name as she instead strode toward them. “Neltharion.” Her golden eyes looked Amélie up and down. “You have corrupted another, I see.”

“I am no more corrupted than I was before I inherited this dragon soul,” Amélie said. “Hanzo told me where to find you.”

“Did he now?” The woman circled around the three of them slowly, purposefully. Brigitte tried to stand tall and not be intimidated, though that was quite a challenge. She could not get a read on this woman at all. She certainly wasn’t _just_ human. “And here I thought he and I were friends.”

“I have not hunted you down to kill you, though I can feel this dragon soul’s desire to.” Amélie fixed her eight red, pupil-less eyes all on the woman. “We seek your assistance, actually.”

“Oh?” The woman leaned against Amélie’s bulky foreleg. “With what, may I ask?”

She stumbled as Amélie’s dragon form melted away, revealing instead the girl Brigitte was most familiar with. “This soul causes nothing but suffering,” Amélie said. “We razed an entire world before I realized I did not want that to be our legacy.”

At those words, the woman’s aloof demeanor changed. She came around and studied Amélie with eyes far gentler than before, though still they glowed with power. “I had heard the spirit of Deathwing was infused into the body of an innocent human girl. I thought he had finally found peace, and then...”

Brigitte was tempted to volunteer that the girl she had heard of wasn’t Amélie, but quickly realized it would probably hurt their cause more than help it to tell her they’d been passing the dragon soul around like a cool accessory. Neither Amélie nor Moira mentioned it, either.

“So why have you come here now?” the woman asked. “Do you wish for me to take the soul?”

Amélie glanced at her companions. Brigitte gave her a little nod.

“I do not care whether you take the soul or not,” Amélie said. “But I would like you to restore the world it helped to destroy. I know you can do that.”

The woman folded her arms and chuckled. “Has Hanzo been singing my praises?”

“Something like that.”

Growing serious, the woman said, “I can, and will, help you. But I’m taking the soul back with me when I go.”

“Fair enough.”

“Do you know how to extract a soul?” Brigitte had been under the impression it was some sort of rare, forbidden art. Then again, this woman definitely _looked_ like she would be versed in forbidden arts.

“I am the Aspect of Life itself.” The woman held out her palm. A green energy radiated out from it. At their feet the grass and flowers all perked up and began to grow. “That soul you carry may be corrupted, but it is still a life. A life I once knew quite well.” The last line was tinged with a touch of melancholy, but she did not let any sadness show on her face. “I will put him to rest where none can disturb him again.”

“But first you’ll restore the world he helped destroy.” Moira was standing up as straight as she could as she addressed the other woman. Still the other woman was a hair taller than her. “It wasn’t _our_ fault any of this happened. We were _innocent victims_.”

Brigitte tried not to make a face at the audacious lie.

“And who are you, exactly?” The woman glanced between Moira and Brigitte. “I sense a great power in you.” She pointed at Moira. “Could I be looking at the sorceress who first performed this ritual?”

“No, but you’re looking at the scientific achievement of the century.” She waggled her fingers, the skin hanging off each digit like a poorly-fit glove.

The woman raised one long, feathery red eyebrow. “...Of course.”

“I’m just a human that got caught up in all this mess.” Brigitte offered the woman a simple shrug. “Amélie said there was a dragoness around here who could help us, so I wanted to come and meet her.”

The same green light from before this time enveloped the woman. From within the emerald wisps the woman’s shape changed – it grew so large that Moira, Brigitte and Amélie all had to back away. Two massive red forelegs soon stomped down into the dirt. With a low, guttural sound in her throat, the woman emerged from the light – a giant, red-scaled dragoness. The horns Brigitte had thought were attached to the helmet were apparently real horns, and they were gigantic.

She spread her mighty wings and shook them out. Then, opening her mighty dragon’s maw, she spoke.

_“Show me to the world Neltharion has ravaged. I will see what I can do.”_


	5. The Strangest of Friendships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Judging by the whopping 0 comments on the last chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and assume nobody really cares about this fic anymore. Which is sad...but I'm still going to finish it, because *I* love this story.

At first Hana was too consumed by worry to be bored, but as the hours passed restlessness began to set in. Satya lit a small fire to ward off the impending darkness, and Sombra curled up around it, shielding them from the view of any outsiders. Hana sat cross-legged and stared into the flames. Satya sat opposite her, her attention split between concerned glances at Hana and tending to the needs of the dragonlings, who were all attempting to sneak away into the darkness and go exploring. Jesse came and seated himself beside Hana at one point. Though he did not say much, Hana knew he was trying to be supportive. The poor guy had been through everything they had, and he really had nothing to do with it at all. For that matter, neither did Sombra.

“I’m sorry you two have had to go through all this stuff too,” Hana said at one point.

Jesse lifted his hat, exposing his eyes just a bit. “Eh. My fault for fallin’ for a dragon.”

In her boredom, Hana found herself more curious than usual. Recalling what Jesse had disclosed to her before, she decided to ask, “Do you still wish you were one?”

“Christ, you never forget a thing, do ya?” He folded one leg over the other as he leaned back against Sombra’s smooth belly. Sombra had long since fallen asleep. “I just wish it was one or the other. Sometimes I think about how it would feel to really hold ‘er, not just hang on like a first-time cowboy.”

“Well you better keep dreaming, buddy. Even if you _were_ a dragon, males don’t grow anywhere near Sombra’s size. She’d still be able to hold you in one paw.”

“Really?” He settled his arms in together over his chest.

She hadn’t meant to crush his dreams, but hey, it was true. Hana avoided his stare after that. Her wandering eyes halted when they fell on Sombra’s face – although it quickly snapped shut, one of her eyes had been open and focused on Jesse. As soon as she realized Hana was looking at her, the dragoness turned her head and lay it down facing the other way.

For the first few hours, Hanzo had stood atop a roof with an arrow trained on them, but even he seemed to tire of that after a while. Eventually he slid down off the roof and came over to them. “They may not return,” he said. “It is not as if you sent the most dependable of creatures.”

“Brigitte will keep them in line.” Although that was Hana’s immediate response, in reality she wasn’t quite so confident. After the whole incident with Moira, Brigitte had had a sort of gleam in her eye that Hana did not recognize. It was the same look Moira often wore, a sense of morbid wonder about the world and all its potential for both growth and suffering. Like when Deathwing’s claws first wrapped themselves around Hana’s tiny, infant heart, Moira’s grip on Brigitte would never be fully undone. She would always be a little different now. A little weird. Of course Hana still loved her, but she was coming to terms with that very slowly.

Hanzo knelt down by the fire and rested his bow before him. From out of a fold in his clothing he withdrew something. With a breath of blue fire, he lit a cigarette and took a drag of it.

“Wow, it’s a good thing you’re surrounded by creatures who are used to breathing in smoke, or this would be considered extremely rude,” Fareeha murmured. Despite her words, she coughed as he exhaled a lungful in her direction.

They passed the whole night like that. The dragonlings were the first to pass out, stacked on top of each other like a dragon pig-pile. Fareeha nodded off next. Sombra appeared to be asleep, but Hana really couldn’t tell for sure. Jesse was leaned against her with his hat pulled down, and she also couldn’t tell if he was asleep. Only she and Hanzo were clearly wide awake.

“So...” Hana decided to speak up at one point.

Hanzo raised a dismissive hand. “Save your breath. I do not engage in ‘small talk’.”

“It wasn’t _gonna_ be small talk, asshole.” Hana crossed her arms and blew her bangs indignantly out of her eyes. “I was going to ask you about the dragoness we’re waiting for.”

“Ah.” Of course, he did not apologize for his rudeness. “I met her in another world. I am not a dimensional traveler by trade, not like those abominations you sent to retrieve her. I stumbled across a gap, and that is where I met her.”

“I’m surprised you managed to befriend somebody. Especially another dragon.”

“We are not ‘friends’. We fought at first, both in our human forms. I knew by her scent that she was a dragon. She could not hide that truth from me for long.”

“Did she kick your butt?”

Hanzo’s lips twisted in disdain. “No. I bested her with my archery. Even in their true form, I do not lose to she-dragons.”

“Pfft, wow. Okay.” Hana dismissed him with a handwave. “Because you totally didn’t get ‘bested’ by Sombra earlier.”

“A rare exception.”

“Riiiight. So you beat this dragoness, and then what?”

“She was not of that world, either. We explored it together. I found nothing of interest to me, so I returned here.”

“And it was all destroyed.”

“No, this was long before that. Those creatures believe they have changed the world in a way it has never been changed before. But I have seen much in my time. Life in this world will continue on.”

The sentiment reminded her of what that one human woman had said. The time traveler had told them she’d seen the birth _and_ death of the universe, and that Deathwing had nothing to do with either of those events.

Despite how old she sometimes felt, Hana often had to step back and remind herself that she was but a child compared to most of the creatures she associated with.

Hanzo took another slow inhale of his cigarette. The fire was beginning to die out. Without her flame breath Hana had no way to stoke it, and she wasn’t about to ask Hanzo to do it for her. Satya was curled up with Fareeha and the dragonlings, fast asleep. _Guess I should probably take a nap, too. It’ll pass the time, at least._

But she could not sleep with Hanzo watching her. Even covering herself with Sombra’s wing, she still could not get comfortable enough to nod off.

Thankfully, she did not have to.

Dawn was just beginning to peek over the horizon when the sky tore itself open like a split seam. Hana shot up. Hanzo turned toward it.

The rest of the group was woken by a mighty flap of wings. From the rift a mighty red dragon burst through. On its back rode Brigitte, Moira and Amélie. Brigitte gave Hana a smile and a wave the moment she spotted her. Hana could only stare, dumbfounded, at the scenario.

The three of them dismounted as the dragoness landed in the clearing. “ _Ah, Hanzo._ ” Her voice echoed when she spoke, a sign of her power. “ _It’s been quite a while. How did I know you would call on me again someday?”_

“It was not I who called you,” he snapped. “I was perfectly content with the way things are here. _My_ territory remains undisturbed.”

“ _Perhaps someday you will learn a little selflessness._ ” The dragoness turned her attention to Hana and the others then. “ _I am Alexstrasza, the Aspect of Life. I see this world is badly wounded. I will do what I can.”_

“Alexstrasza?” The name felt like a kick to the gut. Hana clenched her fists as remnant memories from the soul she had once shared a body with flooded her mind.

Alexstrasza looked upon Hana, her tail swishing slowly back and forth. “ _Yes?_ ”

In life, Deathwing had betrayed this dragoness. He had facilitated her kidnapping and imprisonment and allowed her children to be taken from her and turned into vehicles of war. _Alexstrasza is the one who’s going to restore the world Deathwing destroyed?_

Unsure what else to do, Hana simply shook her head and withdrew from the dragoness.

She should have known it was _her_ Hanzo spoke of.

“So I’d say some congratulations are in order.” Moira stood before the dragoness, her arms extended. “We saved the day.”

“Thank you, Brigitte.” Satya gave her an approving nod. Brigitte smiled.

“Brigitte? She was barely a guest on our journey!” Moira huffed.

Amélie was paying attention not to them, but to Hana. As usual, the girl moved in near-silence. She appeared before Hana without a sound.

“Do you recognize her?” the girl quietly asked.

Hana knew she could hide nothing from this girl. Amélie already knew. “She’s kind,” Hana replied. “I’m not surprised she wants to help.”

“She wants the soul back.” Amélie’s piercing yellow eyes searched Hana’s. “Do you think we should give it to her? After what happened last time...”

“Alexstrasza is a lot different from some random forest witch. And besides, even if she did try to pull something, can’t Moira just eat her like she ate the soul of the witch?”

“She was only able to devour the witch because the witch was not truly alive to begin with. She was much like us. An entity that came into being, not a creature that was born. The only difference was that, where we emerged from a laboratory tank, she crawled out of the shadow of a rotting tree.”

“Really?”

Amélie nodded. “Moira holds her memories. The tree looked over an old, dilapidated cemetery. I guess that setting can stir up all sorts of nasty things, somewhere between living and dead.”

“...Huh.” Any further thought Hana might have put toward that strange tale was cut short by Brigitte grabbing her up in a big hug. “Ah! I’m glad you made it back too, hun!” she choked out as Brigitte nearly crushed her.

“Traveling to different worlds is crazy!” Brigitte dropped her back to the ground and spun around, her eyes positively sparkling. “We came across a world where you and Satya were vampires, and a world where Moira was still a doctor. There are a bunch of differences, but also a bunch of things that are the same – it's just nuts!”

“Moira was a doctor?”

“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now...”

With a beat of her scarlet wings, Alexstrasza took to the sky. The grass she had been standing in was lush and green and far longer than the patches around it. Where she flew the clouds parted, and beneath her a trail of wildflowers and greenery began to bloom.

“So the world really can be restored?” Fareeha came up beside them and watched as the red dragoness soared through the sky, casting an exuberant emerald light over all the land. “This isn’t another dream, is it?”

“We would not do that again.” Amélie shook her head. “At the time we thought that was the best solution to avoid killing you outright. But now I don’t think we need to do either of those things.”

“Yeah, I’d prefer to stay alive and conscious if possible,” Fareeha replied.

Moira and Brigitte were following after Alexstrasza. Hana let them go. Fareeha and Satya talked amongst themselves. Satya was trying to stop their young monstrosities from burning down the new plants. Behind them Sombra and Jesse were gathered close together. Jesse had his hands on either side of Sombra’s face. Sombra’s tail was pointed downward, and her eyes were on the ground instead of on her lover.

“Alexstrasza can raise the dead.” Amélie was still focused on Hana. She still looked like a really creepy kid, but it seemed something had changed during her trip with Moira and Brigitte. For the first time that Hana could remember, she could actually see emotion on the girl’s face.

“Yeah. She can.”

Amélie did not say anything further about the topic.

Hanzo had returned to guarding his territory – every time Alexstrasza circled close he straightened his spine and clenched his fingers on the handle of his bow. But she had no time for him or his turf. Soon she swept off into the distance, and on the horizon Hana saw brand new trees rise up to form forests. The dragoness did not seem to exert control over things like houses and buildings – the human structures were left in their entropied states. Vines began to overtake their broken walls, and some were split down the middle by massive tree roots.

It would never be the same as before, but, as Hanzo had said, this world would continue on.

“Do you suppose this ‘rebirth’ is creating new genetic patterns, new plants and animals? Or will it rely solely on existing genetic material as a blueprint?” Moira propped up the face of a new flower with one of her hideous long nails. She and Brigitte were lying on the ground, observing all the new flora. “At the very least there will be some fascinating mutations...”

“Alexstrasza’s abilities probably use the DNA of dead things that are already here. I doubt she’s writing her own genetic code on the fly for all this stuff.”

“True, but what if some other bits and pieces get mixed in? There may be a slew of new creatures in your world very shortly.”

“And I’m sure you’ll be taking samples from every one of them.”

Moira settled her palm under her chin and stared at the young plants before her. “I don’t plan to stay.”

Brigitte lifted her head. “Really?”

“What we saw, in that other world...I think it’s time I fulfilled my word to Amélie’s human parents. I managed to bring her back to life, after all. It was probably thanks to the Lacroix’s funding.”

“Does Amélie want that?”

“Of course she does. What child doesn’t want to be reunited with her progenitors?”

“Maybe a child that has no memory of them?” Brigitte sat up, and crossed her legs in the grass. “I know your brain got chewed up by the dementia, but you didn’t forget everything about being a mom. That’s why you took her under your wing in the first place.”

“So now you’re going to psychoanalyze me, are you?” Moira’s words were hostile, but her tone was not. “It’s not like I _want_ to abandon her. It’s _your_ ridiculous moral code that’s infected me telling me to return her to her parents.”

Brigitte snorted. “Well I’m _so_ sorry for that.”

As much as Hana wanted to join Brigitte at her side, it felt wrong barging in on their conversation. _God, what a weird friendship._ If you could even call it that...

Thankfully Brigitte soon noticed her, and beckoned her over with a wave. As soon as Hana went over to her, Brigitte grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down into the grass. Even after all this time, soft grass still felt funny on her human skin. She sprawled out on the ground and nestled her cheek against it. Brigitte reached over and tangled her fingers into Hana’s hair, combing through it as she had a million times during their life together.

“This has been a really crazy few days,” Hana murmured, staring up into the pink sky.

“This has been a really crazy, like, ten years.” Brigitte lay down beside her, folding her arms behind her head.

“Oh, I can best that.” Moira flopped down beside the two of them. Her grin told Hana she knew she was intruding on their personal moment. “Brigitte could tell you all about it, since she seems so keen on waxing philosophical about my life experiences.”

Brigitte rolled over to face away from the other woman. When she and Hana were angled toward each other, Brigitte leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips. Hana nestled against her chest.

“Hey,” she whispered into the front of Brigitte’s shirt.

Brigitte stirred. “Yeah?”

“After this, let’s maybe try for a pretty normal rest of our lives?”

“You’re saying this as if our friend group doesn’t consist of dragons, dragon fuckers, and living science experiments.”

“Aww, I’m in your friend group now? I’m touched!” Moira gave a dramatic toss of her head. “Then again, who _wouldn’t_ want to associate with a creature as interesting as myself?” When she sat up, her stomach made an audible churning noise. Her smile fading, Moira thumped a fist against her chest. “...Urgh. Suddenly I’m feeling a bit sick.”

Alexstrasza winged back over them. As she passed over, Hana could feel the tangible change in energy around them. It was restorative; she felt rejuvenated. Moira, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be faring as well. She attempted to get to her feet, but ended up on her hands and knees instead, coughing like a cat with a hairball.

“Uhh...” Hana knelt down beside her. “Everything okay?”

Moira retched into the grass. A golden fluid began to leak from the corners of her mouth. Hana and Brigitte exchanged a look.

“What is going on?” Amélie appeared at Moira’s side. Moira tried to answer her, but all that came out was a wet gurgle and some yellow drool.

Amélie, by contrast, appeared completely fine. “Moira?” She gave the woman a rough few pats on the back. Moira gagged.

Alexstrasza landed beside them and assumed her humanoid form. “This land will take some time to restore, but...” She seemed only then to notice Moira’s plight, as Moira flipped over onto her back and clutched at her throat. “...Is everything all right with this one?”

“Probably.” Hana flipped her back over. Moira collapsed onto her side and started spitting some kind of gunk into the grass.

“Um, hold on?” Suddenly Sombra was descending upon them. She just barely avoided stepping on Moira as she brought her massive self over to the group. “You’re not a full-blooded dragon??”

Alexstrasza’s eyebrows knitted together. “I am nothing _but_ a dragon. Like all of our kind, I can assume different forms.”

Sombra stared at her. “I thought only half-dragons could shapeshift.”

“Then you’ve been misinformed.”

With a screech and a hiss, Moira coughed up a big, disgusting puddle of glittering golden goop. Grimacing, Brigitte brushed some of it off her shoe. The puddle bubbled, and then changed shape. It formed first into a slender golden hand, reaching outward, and then formed the rest of a body.

Hana, Brigitte, and everyone else soon found themselves staring down at the writhing, gasping form of the Witch of the Wilds.

Moira sat back on her haunches and exhaled. “Goodness. Glad that’s over.” When she glanced down at the witch, her eyes went wide. “Angela?”

As soon as the witch caught her breath, she leaped up in the air. “You - you wretched thing!” Her small, spiky wings carried her over to Alexstrasza’s side. “I’ve never experienced anything so horrific!”

Alexstrasza studied her. “What is going on here?”

“She _devoured_ me!” She jabbed a finger at Moira. “You’re a freak! You’re all freaks!” Turning to Alexstrasza, she exclaimed, “I don’t know what world you hail from, but you _must_ take me with you. I can’t bear another moment existing in the same universe as this maniac!”

“This lady tried to destroy our world before,” Hana said flatly.

“Ah.” Alexstrasza nodded.

“I don’t care about bending creatures to my will anymore.” There was a note of desperation in the witch’s voice that Hana had never heard in her before. “Please, I’ve been humbled. I just don’t want to spend another minute in the body of that abomination. It’s like being trapped in a moldy shower.”

“Hm. And here I thought you were into me,” Moira murmured.

“I can certainly take you back with me,” Alexstrasza declared. “Your power will not be an anomaly in my world. There are many creatures of equal, and greater, might.”

“Fine. That’s absolutely fine.” The witch remained partway behind Alexstrasza, as though she were afraid to come too close to any of Hana’s group. Hana noticed a bead of sweat trickling down the half of her forehead not covered by hair. _Jeez. Is that what Brigitte went through, too?_

“Then assist me in restoring this world and I will take you back when I’m finished.”

“Deal.” The witch adjusted her hat and took a few deep breaths. “Oh God, it’s so good to be free again. I’m not getting mixed up in any more soul-stealing ever again.”

Alexstrasza strode with great purpose over to Amélie, who stared up at her with only a mild interest. “Speaking of, are you ready, young one?”

Amélie shrugged. “I suppose.”

Alexstrasza gave a little chuckle. “You are quite the interesting child.”

“I’ll take credit for that,” Moira added in.

Alestrasza touched her claws to Amélie’s throat. Lightly she brought her fingers upward, to just under the girl’s mouth. Amélie tensed, then opened her mouth, as if she were going to choke in the same way as Moira. But Alexstrasza guided her with a gentle hand, drawing a thick black smoke out of Amélie’s lungs. It swirled around Alexstrasza’s hand, crackling and snapping and surrounded by an angry red aura. Alexstrasza blinked slowly as she gave it a brief look. She did not speak, but gave a slight shake of her head at the sight of it.

As the dragon soul was extracted from Amélie, her body began to change. Her scaly skin peeled away, dripping off of her in layers. Her reptilian eyes changed shape, and her claws returned to normal human nails. She almost looked like a normal teenage girl after that. Almost.

In its raw form, the dragon soul was little more than a snarling cloud of inky blackness. It formed a jagged, mouth-like opening and attempted to bite down on Alexstrasza’s arm. The dragoness shifted her hand, holding the soul out away from her. “Oh Neltharion, what am I going to do with you...”

It was hard to believe that hideous thing had grown inside Hana for so long. She had always felt its darkness, but seeing it like that was quite different. _All that ‘the mighty Deathwing’ ever was is in there now. Just a cranky storm cloud._

When Alexstrasza was finished, Amélie sank to her knees, panting. Moira knelt down beside her and quickly checked the girl over. Amélie gave her a small nod, and Moira backed off a bit.

“I apologize for all the trouble he has caused here,” Alexstrasza said. Her eyes were on nothing but the soul she held. “Perhaps in the future you will not meddle with such dangerous spirits.” Her eyes were on Satya. She must have figured out who among them was The Summoner.

“I realize now that it was not the most informed decision.” Satya retained her tall, proud posture even in the face of the scolding. “It was not something I ever planned to do again.”

“Good.”

“But look at all the good that came from it! Look at all we _learned!_ ” Moira threw an arm around both Hana and Brigitte. Her skin left a greasy smear on Hana’s forearm. “Look at the _friendships_ we made along the way! I’d say it all worked out in the end.”

“We literally lost a decade of our lives in a comatose dream state.” Fareeha had been keeping quiet until then, but at Moira’s outburst she folded her arms and scowled.

“Yeah, and my whole family is probably...” Brigitte trailed off. Glancing over at Alexstrasza, she said, “Wait, can you bring people back to life if they died a long time ago?”

Alexstrasza gave a solemn nod. “Their essence remains a part of the living earth. It is still my domain.”

Immediately Brigitte was fishing something out of her pocket – a crumpled old photograph. “This is them! Can you revive them with just a picture? Or do you need something else?”

Alexstrasza settled a finger on the picture. She studied it for a moment, and then said, “I cannot revive them. They still live.”

“What??” Brigitte pulled the photo away. “These people, they’re alive?? Are you sure??”

“I can feel their presence above the ground. Yes, they are alive.”

“Do you know where?”

Alexstrasza regained her dragon form. “Would you like me to show you?”

“Yes!” Brigitte climbed right up on her back. Alexstrasza drew up straight and tall, and the look on her face told Hana she was not usually treated as a ride. But she did not stop Brigitte, and instead shifted until the girl was comfortable. “Come on, Hana!”

Hana’s first instinct was to follow Brigitte, but something else caught her attention first – Moira and Amélie had disappeared. “Where are they?” She spun in a circle.

She didn’t even have to say names for everyone to know who she meant. “Seriously?” Fareeha started searching the nearby underbrush. “Did we seriously just let them sneak away after all this?”

Sombra put her nose to the ground and took a sniff. “The whole place stinks like them. No way I’m gonna be able to–”

“That them?” Jesse tipped his chin toward the deeper forest. Sure enough, deep within the trees they could see a splotch of bright orange hair.

“...Oh yeah. I knew I kept you around for a reason.” Sombra gave him a nuzzle. He pulled his hat down over his eyes, but his smirk was clearly visible.

Brigitte climbed down off of Alexstrasza and hurried off into the forest. “Hey! Where are you girls going?”

Once she pushed her way through the brush, the whole scene became clear. The two of them were standing in front of a dimensional rift, rent open by Moira’s claws. They startled at the interruption, and quickly moved to block it from view – but it was, of course, far too late.

“Where do you two think you’re going?” Satya folded her arms.

Amélie and Moira glanced at one another. Amélie rubbed her forearm as she withdrew into the background, leaving Moira to explain.

“We’re leaving,” Moira said.

“I can see that. Where are you going?”

One bony, purple-tinged hand lightly tousled Amélie’s hair. The girl barely reacted. “If you all must know, I’m taking her home.”

Amélie turned to her. “I thought we were going home together?”

“That was before I realized you had parents out there who wanted you back.” At Amélie’s scrunched face she added, “I’m trying to do the moral thing, all right? Do you have any idea how hard it is for _me_ to be _moral?”_

“Why do you need to be moral? I like things the way they are.”

“Yes, well...” Moira seemed to ponder that a moment. “I like things the way they are as well. But that’s not how morality works. Morality is about doing things you don’t want to do because society at large has determined it’s the proper course of action.”

Brigitte huffed. “That is _not_ what–”

“That sounds terrible. And I don’t want to be dropped back into a family I don’t know, anyway. Those were the _original_ Amélie’s parents. I was born in a lab, just like you.”

“I know. I was there.”

“We have been together ever since then. Do we really have to change that now?”

“I...suppose not...” Moira cast one last glance at the open rift. “Regardless, we don’t belong in this world anyway. So we should be going no matter what.”

“Why? I want to stay with Sombra.”

“What? I thought that was only when you were a dragon-thing.”

“It makes sense. I’m pretty cool.” Sombra’s head was stuck in through the interwoven tree branches in the thick of the forest.

“They can’t stay here.” Fareeha had pushed her way through the underbrush as well. “I mean, they _can’t._ We’d be crazy to let them stay.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t be ‘letting’ us stay, my dear. We can come and go whenever we please.” Moira dismissed her with a raised palm. “This is between the two of us.”

Hana nudged Brigitte. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “They’ve proven themselves to be dangerous...but so have we...”

“Honestly,” Brigitte whispered back, “I really don’t think they’re a threat anymore. They might get into some shenanigans here and there, but I felt what was inside. Deep down it’s just a lost girl and her slightly-screwy mother figure trying to find a purpose besides being genetic ghosts of dead people.”

“Yeah, but their last ‘purpose’ was–”

“I know.” Brigitte rubbed her temples. “I’m probably not the best person to ask. I’m still trying to separate my thoughts from hers.”

“Amélie,” Moira said. “We’ve done enough to this people. We can always come back. But I think we’ve long overstayed our welcome at this stage.”

Amélie sighed. “I suppose so. Fine, we can go somewhere else. I guess.”

“We’ll find somewhere else to explore. Maybe a new world to...” She leaned in and whispered something to the girl. Hana didn’t need to hear it to know what they were plotting.

“...Or maybe they _will_ always be a couple of sociopaths,” Brigitte murmured.

“So it’s decided, then.” Moira pulled up tall and clasped her hands behind her back. “We shall return to navigating the seas of the multiverse, as has always called to us. But we’ll certainly visit!”

“We shall look forward to it,” Satya said, with what Hana could only describe as an audible eyeroll in her tone.

“See ya, Amélie.” Sombra stretched her neck long enough to give the girl a lick on the side of her face. Amélie gave her a pat on the nose.

The two of them stepped partway through the void they’d created. Amélie did not look back as she crossed through. Moira paused just long enough to turn and do a finger-gun gesture at Brigitte. Brigitte exhaled, then gave her a small wave.

The rift closed with an explosion of light sparkles. They drifted downward before slowly winking out. That left the remaining group just standing around nothing in silence.

“So you just let them go?” The Witch of the Wilds fluttered her wings indignantly. “After what they did to me?” At everyone’s collective look, she added, “...And to everyone else, of course?”

“I don’t care about them right now.” Brigitte climbed back up on Alexstrasza. “Let’s find my family!”

“Right, yeah!” Hana joined her on the dragoness’ back. “The group’s not complete without them!”


	6. Progeny of the Great Apocalypse

“You know, when it’s not the last bastion of survival in a crumbling wasteland, this castle is actually pretty nice.” Brigitte was in the process of beating the dust out of the curtains in what she and Hana had claimed as their bedroom. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but when your family consisted of over a dozen creatures, some of whom were too large to even fit in a regular house, the castle Moira and Amelie had once stowed their slumbering forms in was currently their best option.

And it _was_ pretty nice in there, once they’d cleaned out all the goo and cobwebs. They had a nice big bed that didn’t creak under their weight, and a thick wooden door that bolted shut, preventing any unwanted intrusions. The rest of their furniture was still in the process of being built out of scrap.

“It’s perfect for us.” Hana hugged Brigitte’s forearm and leaned her cheek on her wife’s shoulder. “Who needs a house? We have an _impenetrable fortress!_ ”

“True.” Brigitte whacked at the curtain a few more times. The dust made her cough. “Could you maybe go find Sombra and ask if she can fan away the dust with her wings while I do this?”

“Sure.” Hana yanked open the heavy door. It was massively tall and wide, large enough to let the larger inhabitants fit right through. When they were let in, anyway.

The castle’s main hallway was lined with imposing wooden doors on either side. Some were splintered or broken off. Those rooms did not see use. Above each door there was a name written on the stone wall in permanent marker – Brigitte's doing. Pausing at the door with **JESSE & SOMBRA** written over it, Hana realized it was partway open. Nudging it further, she slipped inside. “Hey guys, Brigitte wants to know if– _whaa_!”

Jesse was lying in the middle of his bed, and there was a human woman on top of him. Although they were fully clothed, they were making out with a passion that definitely foretold of more to come. They didn’t even seem to notice Hana there.

“ _Jesse!_ ” At her exclamation, the two finally stopped what they were doing. The woman lifted her brilliant purple eyes to Hana. At that moment Hana realized her nails, still clutching the bedsheets on either side of Jesse, were long and purple as well, and her hair, half-shaved, resembled the violet-tipped black spikes she had seen so many times before. “...Sombra?”

“Yeah?” Sure enough, Sombra’s unmistakable voice emerged from the woman’s mouth. “What do you want, pipsqueak? Can’t you see we’re in the middle of something?”

Hana was too stunned to be offended by the rudeness. “I had no idea you had a human form.”

“Ever since I found out that dragoness Alexstrasza could shapeshift, I figured I could probably do it, too.” She climbed off Jesse and sauntered over to Hana. Hana noticed she was just a _little_ bit taller than Hana. That left her wondering if the other woman had done that on purpose. “And look how cute I am!” She struck a pose. “I was afraid I was gonna end up looking like you.”

“What the hell is _that_ supposed to–”

“So what did you want?” Sombra flopped back down on the bed, kicking her legs in the air. “God, it’s weird being so light. I never thought I’d be able to sleep in a human bed!”

“You know what? Never mind.” Hana flipped her hair over her shoulder and strutted back to the door. Pausing in the doorway, she turned one last time and said, “Oh, and what are _those?”_

Sombra glanced down at the shoes Hana was pointing at. “What? Humans wear these things.”

“Toe shoes?? No, they really don’t.”

“What’s wrong with them? They fit my weird little...what’d you call these things? Toes?”

Hana looked to Jesse. “Are you really gonna have sex with someone who doesn’t know what toes are?”

He shrugged. “I ain’t gonna be quizzing her during.”

“Ew. I’m leaving.”

From behind her Hana could already hear them smacking their lips all over each other again. She made sure to shut the door tightly behind her this time.

_I’ll have to ask Satya to do it instead._

Continuing down the hall, she paused at an open door. A terrible buzzing sound came from inside the room, and dust was flying everywhere. Peering inside, she realized Torbjörn was in there, grinding away at something. “Hey, Papa,” she called out. He lowered his metal mask and gave her a wave. “That desk is gonna be perfect when it’s done!”

“Of course it will! I’m the one making it!” He may have been battered by the world Moira and Amélie had brought about, but they should have known it wouldn’t kill him. The man was indestructible.

Satya resided in a tower of the castle, not a room like the others. Day and night she kept watch over the skies. The dragonlings had started venturing out on their own, seeking territories to settle down in. They still returned to their parents often, but not often enough for Satya’s liking. As much as Satya spoke of wanting them to be independent, Hana knew it was difficult for her. Likewise, she herself tried not to get too upset about Satya mourning her nearly-empty nest. She knew she alone could not fill the entire void, and that it didn’t mean Satya didn’t care about her. But she supposed a part of her would always be that little bit jealous.

Rather than climbing the spiral stairs up to the tower perch, she instead descended to the lower level, where the rest of the castle’s residents lived. The basement level was a lot darker, but some of its inhabitants seemed to prefer that.

There came a faint noise behind her, something smooth sliding against the stone floor. “Heya.” Hana didn’t even have to turn around. Moments later Emily came up beside her, flicking her serpentine tongue curiously. “I’m down here stalling from doing what I’m supposed to do. Got anything interesting to show me?”

Emily grinned. Beckoning Hana over to the far staircase that led to the castle dungeon, she slithered eagerly over to them and waited for Hana to catch up. Once she did, they hurried down the stairs, Emily leaving her in the dust once again. “Hey, if I slid on my belly down the stairs I could go that fast, too!” Hana panted as she raced after her.

The dungeon was even dustier than the rest of the castle. Hana coughed as they made their way down the small, winding hall to the metal gate of the dungeon. “What am I going to be looking at?” She knew Emily wouldn’t answer – the snake-woman still wasn’t very comfortable with human speech – but she couldn’t help asking anyway.

Emily heaved the gate open, then slipped inside. Immediately Hana noticed a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling above what looked to be a pile of old clothing. Stranger still, Reinhardt was sitting on one of Torbjörn’s newly-welded chairs, reading aloud from a weathered old book.

“‘ _Know, friend Sancho,’ answered Don Quixote, ‘that the life of knights-errant is subject to a thousand dangers and reverses, and neither more nor less is it within immediate possibility for knights-errant to become kings and emperors, as experience has shown in the case of many different knights with whose histories I am thoroughly acquainted...’_ ” When he noticed Hana, he stopped. “Ah, Hana! Have you come to visit the little ones?”

“Little ones...?” As she drew closer, Hana realized there was something in the center of the pile of old clothes – a clutch of mottled, brown-and-white eggs. Beside them on the pile Lena was lying on her stomach, observing them. “Whoa! Did Emily lay eggs?”

“Aren’t they the cutest little things you ever saw?” Lena reached over and gave one of them a gentle pat. “Turns out Emily can just _do_ that! She doesn’t need a male snerson to make a bunch of little sneggs full of snabies. So I guess I’m gonna be a mum! Well, a co-mum.”

“A snum?” Hana said.

“Nah, Emily’s the snum since she’s a snake mum. I’m just a regular ol’ human mum. A humum.”

“Well congratulations.” The eggs were quite large, almost the size of dragon eggs. A human hand would just barely be able to hold one. “Huh. I wonder if this is how snake people started to exist here. You might’ve created some kinda paradox by bringing her back to the past.”

“Probably. Feels like I’m always messin’ up timelines.”

“I’m glad you did.” Emily enunciated the words carefully, though her voice still had a gruff, hissy quality to it.

“D’aww.” Lena winked at her. “I’m glad I did, too!”

“So how long ‘til they hatch?” Hana carefully rested her palm on one of the eggs. Its shell was shaking slightly. Something was certainly alive in there.

“No idea. Emily said she’s never done this before. But sometimes they move around a little, so it probably shouldn’t be _too_ long. Winston’s been doin’ a lotta research about snakes, too, so I think we’ll be ready when it happens!”

Hana left the eggs alone, though not before tucking some fabric up around them to keep them nestled in securely. “I’m sure Satya will help out when they hatch. She’s really missing the dragonlings.”

“Yeah, I noticed she stays up in that tower most of the day. She watching for ‘em?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s sad. At least she still has you, though!” Lena offered her an optimistic smile.

“That’s true. She does.” Even though at the moment Hana was stalling to keep away from her. “I should probably go see her.”

“Okay! Tell her I say hi.”

“Uh-huh.” Hana shuffled toward the door. As she was heading upstairs, she noticed out the window that Genji was coiled up in the grass below, fast asleep. He was supposed to be the castle guard. _So much for that._

Not that there was much for them to be guarded against, anyway – Alexstrasza had done her best reviving the creatures of earth, but even still only a fraction of them were able to live on and thrive in this nature-consumed, wild world. They certainly didn’t have the numbers to take on a castle full of knights and dragons.

The climb up the spiral stairs to the tower’s peak was a long and claustrophobic one. The closer one got to the top, the more the walls closed in on either side, until Hana practically had to turn sideways to fit. Satya, of course, didn’t need to make use of the stairs – she just flew in the giant windows. _Why did I give up my wings? That had to be the stupidest decision I ever made._

When finally she reached the narrow door at the top of the stairs, she pushed it open gently to avoid startling Satya. “Hey,” she said, pushing her face through the open door, “can I come up here?”

Satya was curled up in the corner, her head angled to see out the open window. When Hana approached, one of the dragoness’ wings spread open and drew her in under it. Hana settled on the floor beside her and rested her side against Satya’s. She flinched as an ash-caked tongue slapped her in the head. Regardless of how uncomfortable it was to a human, Hana leaned into her and let Satya show her love in her draconic way.

“Brigitte needs help with dusting the curtains.” Hana yawned. “She wanted me to ask Sombra, but Sombra’s busy running around in human form.”

“Human form? I did not think she had one.”

“Yeah, me neither, until I walked in on her and Jesse eating each other’s faces.”

Satya chortled at that. “Oh dear.”

Hana’s skin, damp from the cleaning, prickled at a slight chill in the air. To say it was drafty up in this tower was an understatement. Yet Satya remained up here day in and day out.

“Lena says hi,” she said after a while.

“Ah. Hello to her, as well.” Satya folded her paws and rested her muzzle on them. “How long has it been since I saw her? I cannot even remember.”

Hana didn’t say anything. Her silence seemed a sufficient answer. “...I know,” Satya continued. “I cannot remain shut away like this forever. I scarcely see anyone but Fareeha these days.” She cast a glance over at the makeshift bed in the corner, just large enough for a single human. A single, thin sheet covered the entirety of a restlessly-slumbering person. 

They’d kept opposite schedules of late, taking turns on lookout duty. Hana never saw them awake at the same time anymore.

Satya’s gaze lingered on her lover for some time. “You guys are gonna drive yourselves crazy with this,” Hana said, her voice soft.

”I know. I do not know how to take my mind off the worrying. What else is there to focus on these days?”

“Well actually, after we help Brigitte, there’s something super cool in the basement I wanted to show you.”

“In the basement? What is it?”

“You’ll just have to see.”

Satya got up on all fours and pulled her wings in. “Very well. That is as good an incentive as any.”

They pressed their foreheads together and nuzzled them. Hana had never been so touchy-feely with her mother figure, but she knew Satya needed it. And, truthfully, she herself needed it as well. Even if it wasn’t completely apocalyptic, this world was still vast, empty, and frightening to a small, defenseless human.

“Love you, Satya,” she decided to say.

“I love you too, Hana.” Satya gave her a nod, her lips eased into the dragon’s version of a smile. “You make me proud every day.”

Hana sniffed. “Hey, cut it out. Instead of standing around being sappy, let’s go help Brigitte.”

“Of course.”

* * *

 

_In another world..._

In a house – no, not a house, a mansion, almost a castle, really – a family was celebrating. A table sat covered by a fancy cloth, and atop that cloth there were plates of fancy foods, and more than half the table was occupied by multicolored bags and boxes all wrapped up with bows. A man and a woman stood on either side of a chair, and in that chair sat a girl with bright, golden eyes and hair as dark as crow’s feathers. The woman at her side, whose eyes were of the same gilded shade, adjusted the girl’s satin purple dress before it could slip off her shoulder. The girl smiled up at her. 

Lost in the joy of the moment, none thought to look up at Moira as she perched on the ledge of a high window and watched the scene unfold.

They’d done the moral thing. This was _their_ daughter, after all. The family had lost so much, and given so much more to regain what they had lost. Moira was by no means a soft-hearted creature, but seeing the LaCroix family reunited brought a little tingle to her cold, gloppy heart.

“Moira!”

Moira swiveled her neck to look down at the voice. From the trees along the riverbank Amélie emerged, waving up at her. “What are you doing up there?” the girl called.

“Oh...just checking on them.” Moira slid down the side of their mansion, leaving a streak of purple goo all the way to the ground. As soon as she landed, Amélie hurried over to her. “They’re quite content, it seems.”

“I have something to show you.” Amélie’s behavior was most uncharacteristic for her – she was smiling, and her eyes had a sparkle about them that Moira had never seen before. "Come."

Cocking an eyebrow, Moira nonetheless let Amélie take her by the arm and lead her into the shade of the forest. Once they were out of sight of the mansion, Amélie turned a corner, bringing them right to the riverbank.

A human sat by the water, staring down into its depths. Moira recoiled, but Amélie continued to pull her forward.

"Amélie," she whispered, "do you not see the-"

At the sound of her voice, the human jumped up. Both he and Moira froze.

She could only recall meeting him once, but his appearance was unmistakable. Pale, freckled skin that looked starved for sun. Unruly red hair slicked back in an attempt to control it. Thick glasses that obscured a pair of curious eyes - one blue, one red.

The young man's lips parted for a moment, but no words came out. Moira, for the first time that she could remember, was equally at a loss for words.

Amélie stepped between them. "I told you I asked Alexstrasza to revive the original Amélie...but I might have asked for a little more than that."

With an uncertain hand, Moira reached over and plucked the boy's glasses off. They had the exact same eyes. Still Moira could not remember him from their life before. But logically, factually, she knew who he was.

"Kellen," she said. "I'm not your mother."

"I know that." The boy had a soft, low voice, so much like hers.

Moira looked to Amélie then. "Why didn't you have her bring his mother back, too? This poor boy..."

"No, it's okay." Kellen stopped her with a raised hand. He even had her long, bony fingers. "My mother is gone. I've accepted that."

"He wants to get to know you," Amélie added. "Since you're different."

He nodded.

 Moira scrunched up her face at him. “Why?”

He wore a knowing smile, the smile of someone who knew exactly how to get through to her. “Data collection?” His eyes were round with curiosity, probably too much for his own good, a feeling Moira was all too familiar with. “I’m interested to learn more about you. Provided you don’t, you know, kill me again.”

Now _that_ was a language Moira could understand. “Of course. I shouldn’t expect anything less from a creature with my DNA.” Moira adjusted her collar and straightened her spine. “In fact, Amélie and I have embarked on a multiversal quest for knowledge. This is but one stop on it.”

“Wow. I knew you had a strong life force, but I didn’t know it was powerful enough to transcend space and time.” A familiar mad grin took hold on his face. “That’s incredible!”

“Oh, you haven’t even seen the extent of our power.” Moira studied her fingernails, still posing tall and proud.

“I’d like to.”

Moira glanced up from her fingers. “Are you saying you’d like to come with us?”

“How could I pass up an opportunity like that?” He took her hand and shook it. “It would be an honor, Dr. O’Deorain.”

Moira looked to Amélie. “What do you think?”

“I would not mind.”

“Hm. Well, then”–She grabbed both of them by the hands–“I suppose we have a third member of our little exploration team!”

Kellen straightened his glasses and smiled up at her. Without hesitation Moira slashed the air with her claws, splitting it right open, and drew both of her disciples into the rift with her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I think this is probably the end of this series, unless I'm struck with a random bout of inspiration again.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing the wacky thing!


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